Originally Posted by
BamaVol
We tried to take the grandkids to Red Robin for late lunch. No go. 45 minute wait with many open tables. I’d say the inability to earn top dollar tips has put them low in the server totem pole. They will have to raise wages to compete as the lower prices mean lower tips.
The question is can they survive a wage increase? They famously cut salaries by 20% at the beginning of the pandemic, and I believe last I saw reported they had a 25% decrease in same store sales. Probably a bit of chicken or egg - sales may still be down simply because they can't find servers to fill all the tables. But if sales are down can they afford to raise wages? Gaining more revenue at the expense of profit might be sustainable short term in order to get people on board. But then they'd have to substantially raise prices at some point.
No point to that I guess, just an observation. But as a former business major, this would have been a fun case study to analyze in my advanced classes. Supply and demand, declining sales, wages and wage laws, government regulation and unemployment subsidies...it has a bit of everything.