[excon]

Hello again:

I've been in business for 40 years.. My costs have ALWAYS gone up and NEVER stopped going up.. Any businessman who says he can't stay in business because his costs are gonna go up, is either LYING or is a Republican.. Sometimes, BOTH.

excon

[paraclete]

Yes it is hard to make money so you have to work smarter, that might mean doing with less staff or it might mean expanding sales with existing staff. Whatever you do you have to remove the slave mentality of expecting people to work for nothing so you can be rich. That is all the minimum wage is saying, work has a certain value and if you can't use the worker efficiently that is not the workers fault

[tomder55]

In a company like that fresh thinking comes slow and adaptation comes slow too.

And yet they've thrived in an environment with increased competition. White Castle also has their products in grocery stores using that innovation that you claim they are incapable of. The reason their products also thrive in grocery stores is that they've nurtured and developed multi-generational customer loyalty for their product . They must be doing something right .
So when their VP says that increasing their labor costs to the extent that a doubling of the min. wage might cause the closing of 200 of their franchises ,I tend to believe him . I know their business model . I don't know Ex's .

[talaniman]

Yawn, its those hard workers that have made WC rich. McDonalds' too. Lets not pretend that serving customers is not the whole base of the wealth and reputation that's brought in the billions every year.

[paraclete]

And yet they've thrived in an environment with increased competition. White Castle also has their products in grocery stores using that innovation that you claim they are incapable of. The reason their products also thrive in grocery stores is that they've nurtured and developed multi-generational customer loyalty for their product . They must be doing something right .
So when their VP says that increasing their labor costs to the extent that a doubling of the min. wage might cause the closing of 200 of their franchises ,I tend to believe him . I know their business model . I don't know Ex's .

They have 400 stores and none of them are franchises they don't use that business model. Ok they expanded their product into supermarkets makes sense but the McDonalds business model has expanded to 32000 stores through franchising, the size of the two business is not comparable. Tom prices increase, it is the way things are. I don't know what an increase in wage would ad to the price of the product but it wouldn't be much, wages is not a large part of product cost. I have seen the multinational fast food outfits jack prices at least 25% and the queue of cars is still out the gate. I expect they have targeted different customers and the baby boomers are educated to eat at fast food joints so the market is ever expanding along with their waste lines. In short Tom stop the bleating. Those kids who work at the fast food joints buy the product too, increase their wages and they will buy more, but this isn't what it is about, it is about lifting the base for everybody

[excon]

Hello again,

Not only is the minimum wage too HIGH, Rand Paul tells millions he’s doing them a FAVOR by cutting off unemployment benefits.

I dunno WHAT to say about that.

excon

[excon]

Hello again, tom:

So when their VP says that increasing their labor costs to the extent that a doubling of the min. wage might cause the closing of 200 of their franchises ,I tend to believe him . I know their business model . I don't know Ex's .

As I said above, ANY businessman who says he CAN'T compete because his costs are going up, is LYING or is a REPUBLICAN.

The fast food industry pays around 10% of the cost of a burger in labor. That means for every $1 that comes in, they pay $.10 CENTS in labor. If his labor costs DOUBLED, he'd have to charge another $.10 CENTS for a $1 burger to break EVEN. In rough terms, that means the the cost of a $5 burger would go up $.50 CENTS, if he wanted to break EVEN.

SOME business's out there DON'T have enough faith their product to believe that the public will pay 10% more. Maybe White Castle did a study about it...

But, they DIDN'T. I LOVE White Castle, and I'd pay a LOT of money to eat them.. I WON'T buy the frozen ones, though, because they're CRAP. I OFFERED to BUY a franchise.. I offered them a LOT of money. They said NO.

In addition, I wonder WHY nobody has responded to my argument that prices go UP all the time, and IF companies CAN'T sustain that, they go OUT of business.. But, White Castle has been around for a LONG LONG time.. Clearly, they've ABSORBED increases in their costs MANY, MANY times in the past, and they're STILL there.

Over to you, wingers..

excon

PS> My plan??? To produce the BEST product available. People will pay ANYTHING to get it. I charge MORE than ANYBODY, and have NEVER received resistance to my prices.

If you're WORRIED that the market WON'T buy your product if you raise prices, you need a BETTER product.

[tomder55]

They are over 1 year without work, thus not counted in the unemployment stats. They get dropped from the workforce so the adm can lie to us about the unemployment rate .
Extend their benefits and put them back on the unemployed list so we can know the true extent of unemployment in the Obama-recovery .
Question ...
Will all these unemployed Americans' do the jobs Americans won't do' ?

[excon]

Hello again, tom:

Will all these unemployed Americans' do the jobs Americans won't do' ?

Apparently not. Is that cause they're not HUNGRY enough??

Question.. The crops wither on the vine because we've deported the workers. At the same time the poor are poorer than ever. Why won't they take those jobs? Have we not made them POOR enough? Do you think they would if we made our poor as poor as, say the Brazilian poor?

excon

[tomder55]

apparently that is the only part of my comment you read . You missed this part :

They are over 1 year without work, thus not counted in the unemployment stats. They get dropped from the workforce so the adm can lie to us about the unemployment rate .
Extend their benefits and put them back on the unemployed list so we can know the true extent of unemployment in the Obama-recovery .

[speechlesstx]

The fast food industry pays around 10% of the cost of a burger in labor. That means for every $1 that comes in, they pay $.10 CENTS in labor. If his labor costs DOUBLED, he'd have to charge another $.10 CENTS for a $1 burger to break EVEN. In rough terms, that means the the cost of a $5 burger would go up $.50 CENTS, if he wanted to break EVEN.

You keep throwing out numbers without any supporting data.

What Are the Ranges?

Certain fast food restaurants can achieve labor cost as low as 25 percent, while table service restaurants are more likely to see labor in the 30 percent to 35 percent range. Food costs (including beverages) for the restaurant industry run typically from the 25 percent to 38 percent range, depending upon the style of restaurant and the mix of sales.

According to the 2010 Restaurant Industry Operations Report compiled by the National Restaurant Association, restaurants whose average ticket runs $15 and under or $25 and over typically spend 33.7 percent of their gross sales revenue on labor. Restaurants whose average ticket totals between $15 and $25 typically spend 33.2 percent of gross sales on labor expenses. These numbers are close enough to indicate that labor costs are relatively consistent throughout the restaurant industry, regardless of the level of service that a establishment provides.

Care to recalculate?

[excon]

Hello again, Steve:

Care to recalculate?

Nahhh... I was IN the restaurant business for years.. The numbers I quoted were MY numbers. I can't help it if other guys weren't as good as me.

excon

[talaniman]

All you have to do Tom to embarrass the prez, is vote yes for a change. Now tell that to the congress, your side of it. Or are you holding it hostage to repeal Obamacare?

Even supply side economics demands you trickle down something.

[speechlesstx]

Hello again, Steve:
Nahhh... I was IN the restaurant business for years.. The numbers I quoted were MY numbers. I can't help it if other guys weren't as good as me.

excon

In other words you have no data to back up your claim, you're just blowing smoke.

[talaniman]

Even your numbers Speech even with overhead shows a tidy double digit profit, reinvested I hope, in equipment and the people who actually do the work to make those profits. I know the job they do you can train a monkey to do, and pay him peanuts. Go ahead, let me know how that works for you.

[speechlesstx]

Um, that was JUST labor costs. The food, building, furniture, insurance, etc. aren't free.

[excon]

Hello again, Steve:

you're just blowing smoke.

Nahhh... This is the Cameo. It was my joint in Steamboat Springs. It was a LONG time ago, and I didn't keep my books to show you. Take my word for it, I made a LOT of money. And my labor costs were 10%. That COULD be because I was the only high priced help in the kitchen.

And, I only blow a certain kind of smoke.

excon

[speechlesstx]

So you paid your people nothing. Meanwhile, I need facts, I need data, I'm a science kinda guy.

[excon]

Hello again, Steve:

Nahh.. I made the money on the OTHER end. So MY labor wasn't included in the labor costs. Since I had NO high priced chef or restaurant manager, the entire 10% went to my employees. As I've said before, I paid my help MORE than anybody else did.

I don't think you know how PROFITABLE a successful restaurant IS. How many restaurants do you know where they LINE up before you open and STAY lined up till you close. It's a LICENSE to print money. I think you got a B-B-Que joint down there that does that.

excon

[speechlesstx]

No BBQ joint here that popular but there's a tourist trap called the Big Texan Steak Ranch. Otherwise, I'm just reporting the SUPPORTED facts. I don't make policy decisions on hearsay.