I’m bald too. They clipped hair off my arm. We hired an engineer who claimed he had no body hair because he shaved it every morning. Two weeks after repeatedly being told to stop shaving, he was terminated for refusing the drug test.

I think you can fool companies that aren’t serious about drug testing. I’ve worked in dangerous environments where we were serious because everyone else’s life depended on it. It doesn’t weed out everything. You can still have issues with alcohol or be a complete psycho.

Busy golf restaurant luncheon yesterday - waited maybe 5 minutes for our server, who hinted that he was covering both inside and outside dining before strongly efficiently taking our order. We wisely ordered drinks and food at once - all he had to then do was input our order and everything appeared in decent fast fashion including beverage refills. He was hustling fast and hard with a lot of tables. Easy to see that he was covering a huge space! I was ready to pay but our server mentioned to me that there was only one handheld machine and that I’d get faster action with the cashier at the door. I always fear wage theft when the server isn’t handling the payment, so I just handed him a $20 because he deserved to correlate his top service with the 25-30% range. Paid the bill at the door - that’s $0.60 Costco cash back that I won’t be getting.
this is a nice case of server tips plus the feast/famine when it’s suddenly not busy and servers have less service and tip-giving clients.

FWIW, this model of service (sans tipping) is what one seems to find in French restaurants except at establishments with macaroons or aspiring to obtain at least one. I'm a fan of this model of efficient minimalist service w/o the fuss and some modicum of self-service such as getting a bottle of tap water to self serve.

One nice advance I've seen at a couple of True Food Kitchen outposts this year was a QR code on each table that you can scan to then pay with something like ApplePay from your phone. As someone who often doesn't want to linger too long at a table after eating, it was nice to be able to just pay and go without having to flag down the waiter for the bill.

I wouldn't mind that. But the flip side is the QR code menus that some places are using. It can be difficult to understand a full menu on a small phone, especially if it's a large menu. Plus, some of us are getting to an age where it's difficult to read the small print at all. Fortunately, that's not me. But my wife gets frustrated with the QR code menus, which results in us not being ready to order when the server expects us to be.

Situation north of the border

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/res...jobs-1.6058110

Looks like wages & benefits will have to be increased substantially.

Not sure if I mentioned my Monday luncheon - small cafe that had 8 interior and 6 sidewalk tables with 3 competent servers who did it all. Now it’s about 12 sidewalk tables and total 1 server and 1 carrier. The server (maybe the new owner?) does all which means that much patience is needed - the carrier seemed incapable of refilling drinks unless directed by the server. They also kept some tables intentionally empty despite having waiting clients. I don’t exactly know how this can sustain itself. Our meal was about 2 hours so it would have been faster to walk further and go eat elsewhere, although the big salad and tuna scoop do taste quite excellent!

It makes me wonder how many how many other countries are experiencing this and what the differences are between the US and places where this is not a problem…. Different wage structure, weaker economy, higher level of government provided benefits?

I think servers have gotten the short end of the stick for a long time. Paying them well, and treating them right are first good steps.

I know when the pandemic started, in my small business, sales plummeted. I never laid anyone off, and hours were pretty normal. I had staff work on other projects that needed doing. Even gave out raises early. Didn’t lose a single employee. I’m not in the restaurant business, but treating your staff right is the first step.

It would be hard to argue that point.

Interesting story the other day - Chipotle is raising prices to cover the cost of increased wages. That's kind of what we're starting to see across the board with bigger companies, and it's playing a small part in the rising inflation too. Unfortunately, these large chains are able to do that much more easily than smaller, family-run restaurants and stores. It's all fair play, but the smaller places are really going to need to up their game in order to get away with higher prices. But they're going to have to raise prices to compete for labor it seems. I've seen interviews with several owners around my area where they've said they'll just have to go out of business if they have to raise wages. The rest of 2021 could be really interesting for the industry.

I haven’t seen any hesitation in smaller restaurants raising prices. My favorite Mexican food place has had 3 increases of 10% each time, over the last year.

But how long is that sustainable before they lose customers? I'm not saying they can't or won't, just that they may not survive. Every market is different. In our area, there are Mexican restaurants and pizza places everywhere - makes sense, it's Chicago. So, the Greek restaurant can raise his prices because he's one of only two in the area. But if the Mexican and pizza places do it, they're hoping everyone else does it too - or their food is so spectacular they don't worry about what competitors do. And if no one else does, can they still afford to pay staff the same wage?

I still maintain it's a temporary issue anyway. As the $1200 federal subsidy runs out, people are likely going to be willing to take these jobs again. If I were to guess, based on what companies like Chipotle have done, they'll meet somewhere in the middle. Small raises from the restaurants because they need to attract people immediately, and then job demand will rise in the fall. But like I've said, we're all just speculating.

That’s why I think they are doing smaller 10% price increases. $2.65 taco to $2.95. Then $2.95 to $3.30. And two weeks ago, $3.30 to $3.60.

It’s a rather beloved place in the neighborhood. A Taco Bell is 75 yards away, so a real penny pincher is already going there for their crappy 99 cent tacos.

If tacos hit $5, I’d probably find an alternative.

Like all businesses, we consumers frequent our preferences. Why buy a book at full retail when we know it’s discounted elsewhere. And as our favorite eateries raise costs, we can adjust yet will we switch that much if we love their food? Costco meat prices rose 10-15% since 2020; my beloved king crab legs rose from $27.99 to current $32.99 yet I had still reduced consumption of the crab legs per my spouse’s request. So as wages and prices rise, we consumers just adjust with our shopping / dining preferences.

Meanwhile, your Lipitor (or similar) consumption has also fallen, perhaps ...