Restaurant Industry

“One guy could decide, that's it, I'm leaving, and the whole restaurant falls apart that night.”

“You know, the same guy that was able to build a restaurant and open it for 90,000 dollars was able to make a 20 or 25% profit. Today, not possible. Today, between the rent, labor cost, this cost, that cost, that regulation, this thing, that thing, whatever thi…”

“I think at a certain point, especially with tipped employees, I don't know if it should keep going up, because, I mean, it's going to be impossible for restaurants to really keep, to stay in business.”

“I think pricing pressure is just gonna go crazy because it's like the restaurant industry. Like, you know, restaurants are not a bad business. They're bad because there's too much competition.”

“I think in general, kind of similar to building things, they've gotten largely worse on average, right?”

“My industry is an industry of winner-take-all. Think McDonald's and Burger King. Think Panera and Corner Bakery, Chipotle and Qdoba. All of the value creation tends to happen for those that are building something of large scale.”

“And so I think the, those two, the utility and the romance are going to be separable and you as a restauranteur have to understand where you want to be, because I think the middle is going to be a difficult place to live.”

“Like, most jobs, most positions, the average is less than two months that people stick around.”

“They've never had the opportunity to really change prices like some of these other industries because transactions happen in an offline environment.”

“This is honestly one of the hardest times that I've seen in the restaurant industry in all the years I've been in it. I think we're sort of in a moment of reckoning and change. Costs have gone up. I think people are rethinking the meaning of work and what's wo…”

“One of the problems is that we see extraordinarily high turnover in the industry. I think it's something like a 165% is, is typical.”

“Some of our best sales reps were school teachers. Or have come out of the military or have come out of the restaurant industry, not folks who have had many years selling, you know, for other businesses.”

“Just to put things in perspective, the restaurant industry overall is the second highest employer of human capital in India after agriculture. Ten million people directly employed.”

“Compounded annually, we're growing around 21%, which means every three and a half odd years, you're doubling in size. So the number of people employed will double in size.”

“The restaurant industry has a cycle shorter than any other industry. Every six months, food tastes change, design tastes change, entire, you know, the entire vibe around a certain, you know, area changes, entire markets change. So I think the cycles are smalle…”

“Even when they succeed, they have like, 10% net margins typically”

“You know, you go to New York, for example, which has all the local laws which are aimed at, you Burning of fossil fuels inside buildings over the next over the coming years. But there's a carve-out for commercial kitchens. The restaurant industry, the lobby, h…”

“In restaurants where we play, it is incredibly early. It's not a nine, it's 2002 1001.”

“Because I do think about just the restaurant industry and what's happened during COVID, and it's very clear that this part of it's going to keep growing hugely, and it's beneficial for restaurants.”

“And as cities, states, and now the entire country move to a higher minimum wage, and then perhaps one day, one wage for everybody, as opposed to a second-tier For tipped employees, which I believe is not gonna last forever. Can't. You're gonna start to see res…”

“The kitchen crew, this, the bond is different than like just your normal friends or like your coworkers. Like if you go to your office today and you have a coworker who sits, you know, three desks down and both of you have your headphones on and you're typing …”

“I think ghost kitchens were already part of the industry before this happened, and I think will be a bigger part of the industry.”

“I think, sadly, there might be a lot of inventory available on the market, so it is a good time to start a place”

“In the three decades I've been observing the restaurant industry, I don't think I've ever seen something like this where business effectively just halted to a stop.”

“We're at a point where the industry is in a position of, you know, raising costs and all these different things that are affecting us that the accommodations still need to happen, but they need to happen on a sort of non-financial side, you know?”

“We're seeing more than ever I think a huge shift in, you know, tables just not showing up, canceling five minutes before, people showing up late, and then wondering why they can't be sat.”

“When you look at the, our current industry, the restaurant industry, it is not yet even online. 95% of orders still happen through a phone call or an in-person visit. Only five percent occurs through an internet connection.”

“With Chipotle, we were going into strip malls. Often in the inexpensive center units, not the more desirable end caps. This was early on. So the investment was very, very modest. And our production system or that our service format really was an assembly line.…”

“You need a manager to open up a restaurant because the profit margins are so, so, so tiny. If you're not constantly You know, checking your numbers constantly, constantly, constantly. You can make loads of money and, well, revenues and close down because, you …”