I suspect there isn’t a single person in the world that isn’t directly, or near-directly affected by the swath of restaurant closures sweeping the globe. And if you say, “Well I don’t eat out”, then you clearly aren’t a property owner (more on this later). If you feel bad for the out of work employees, you’re probably just jumping on the empathy bandwagon without understanding why you shouldn’t. There’s a lot of layers to this onion. Speaking of onion, I can’t stress this enough, working in the foodservice industry guarantees your food security for as long as you have a job, regardless of where your money goes.

Now, there is a significant portion of restaurants that are corporate owned and operated (Not franchised units) that generally have higher budgets and higher standards. They generally operate at an ideal level of consistency and quality, while going above and beyond in terms of cleanliness and sanitation. In other words, they aren’t forced into a corner where they have to cut costs just to keep the lights on.

Let’s talk about the restaurant employees themselves. You have your Back of House employees, paid hourly. This is a huge grey area but it’s important to point out that it’s common practice to receive cash compensation in full or part, tax-free. I’ve worked at places that will put you on paper, 34 hours, minimum wage to keep your income artificially low. Besides payment flexibility, there is often a wide berth of scheduling flexibility. The jobs aren’t very physically demanding, either. In terms of low-skilled labor, there is an almost unrealistic level of mental and emotional stress at times, which comes with pros and cons against manual labor.

The other set of hourly employees are the ones you mostly hear about. Waitstaff and bartenders. People that you are conditioned to feel obligated to tip, which allows owners to pay minimum wage. That’s not true, actually. They only need to chip in $2.65/hour, so long as enough tips were earned to bridge the gap to minimum wage. So just how much in tips do servers make? 20% per bill is average. The bare minimum tip is considered to be $2-3, usually in higher volume lower price-point situations.

There is zero educational requirement to this field. Experience is only a hurdle to your starting position, not your ability to secure employment. Shifts are often shorter than in other occupations. These jobs are really more luxury than anything else. And that’s the core of what a restaurant is, a luxury. Yes, true, food is necessary. And it the preparation/presentation of food can in itself be both an art form and a form of entertainment. See how quickly we identify the luxury? You simply cannot argue that restaurants in any way essential to people’s lives.

Where do owners sit in this mess? They’re a lot less affected than they like to admit. Those hit the hardest are those operating in low income areas. Bars don’t count. They don’t have the kind of overhead a fullservice restaurant does..

Do I really need to mention all of the restaurant employees that collected unemployment money while getting paid under the table?

Society as a whole shouldn’t take pity or feel sorry because people working in a luxury service industry couldn’t afford as many luxuries for a luxury holiday this last year.

Now, all of that being said thus far, there are some serious problems with having so many restaurants close. At the end of the day, jobs are jobs and jobs support other jobs. Even if all you’re doing is paying for food to pay for someone to buy drinks to pay for someone else to buy food…spending does help keep the economy looking pretty in the short-term.

Restaurant workers by and large tend to live paycheck to paycheck. So, you know, landlords are people, too. And municipal governments that like those property taxes getting paid.

Taxes! This is where the restaurant problem really rears its head. I assume if the restaurant is closed for good, the space is more or less vacant at that point, and I’m almost positive that vacant commercial space lowers property values and also not generating revenue.

“But Rocky!”, you say, “Another business will just move in!”. Fair point, but consider this. The area I live in has 100 restaurants. There aren’t 100 sporting goods stores. Or 100 Lulu Lemons. 100 Halloween USA’s. 100 Office Depot Express Outlet ?

Now when’s the last time a water main broke where you live, and the city told you to go F yourself because a Burger King had to close and the building was left vacant for years before getting demolished? All of the restaurants can disappear, and that missing revenue will be made up. It will be made up by, wait for it…..

Property owners! Time to pay up! Landlords will have to raise their rent accordingly on their 3 remaining tenants. (Worse than vacancy, ending up with occupied units that don’t pay rent. Gotta love being unable to fix crap they break because they can’t stop chainsmoking long enough to make a payment).

I don’t think I need to explain why this is an issue. Or actually I probably do. You probably don’t own your own home. That’s okay, neither do I. Hit me up sometime, we’ll talk about it.

So basically if there’s a decline in revenue because businesses are going away, then the people are going to make up the difference. If the people go away, then you get Flint.