I found this post at The Week by Joel Mathis interesting. It’s about the woes of the casual dining chains:
In much of America, a night out with the family has often meant a meal at TGI Fridays or Red Lobster. But those once-popular restaurant chains — and a few others — now find themselves struggling.
Big chains this year will “declare the most bankruptcies in decades,” said The Wall Street Journal. Among the list of battered restaurants: Red Lobster, Buca di Beppo, Hawkers Asian Street Food, Tijuana Flats and Roti. (TGI Fridays is also reportedly approaching bankruptcy, while Denny’s is planning to close 150 restaurants.) Same-store restaurant sales are down by 3.3% from last year. There isn’t any single reason. “You have the Covid hangover, labor costs,” said one executive. Some families have “pulled back on dining out,” said the Journal. But business decisions have also played a role. “High interest rates have hurt companies that gave priority to growth over profit.”
He mentions some of the factors including inflation, labor costs, and bad management but I think he’s missing some.
For example, meal kit companies are growing by leaps and bounds but experiencing many of the same things. And I’m not expert on either chain casual dining or meal kits but I suspect that they’re competing for the same customers. My cooking is better than any meal kit (not to mention Denny’s) and I know how to shop. I tend to avoid ordering from any restaurant where the food isn’t better than my cooking which is really narrowing the field. That pretty much limits me to pizza and ethnic cuisine.
To my untutored eye it looks like we’re enormously overbuilt on fast food and casual dining restaurants. I think that the fast food business model is fatally flawed for reasons I’ve explained before and I’ve never understood chain casual dining. I would rather support a mom and pop shop than a store operated by some mega-business.
Other than grabbing fast food through a drive-through, I refuse to eat at anything other than local restaurants. Within 2-3 miles of my house, there are at least 10 local places. Most are Creole-Italian, but some are just seafood. (Every restaurant has seafood in a few dishes.) There are even two local hamburger and several po-boy places, plus two snowball stands.
Expanding to 5-7 miles, there are more, but there are a lot of chains, as well. While Ruth’s Chris and Copeland’s may be national, they started local, and I do not consider them as chains.
Except for a few, most only have one or two things I really like, but they make those really well. Other than my red beans, there is only one place I will get them, but they recently changed owners and the recipe. Then, there are some places with marinara sauce and others with red gravy, and many will have the option for meatballs or Italian sausage. (At least two restaurants, sell jars of their sauce or gravy, and this ain’t Ragu.)
Also, I rarely will get any desert that is not made in the kitchen. Usually, this means bread pudding, but one makes everything in-house. You need to be careful asking about “homemade” because they may consider the local bakery to be homemade.
(On a business trip, I took a client to a local place, and after many questions, the deserts were made in the home of the owner’s wife. When I got the entire backstory of the place, the client was amazed. He never got why I told the waitress to tell the wife that “I could taste the love.”)
Specials are another thing I am picky about. If it is not an off-the-menu item, I am not interested. Some places have specials that are only available once a week, but I prefer the dishes that the chef created special for that week.
Before Katrina, table service used to be outstanding. Even the chain wait staff knew the basics of proper service. Today, it is better than out-of-town places. I will never forget the first time a busboy asked me to pass him a plate. I was even more stunned that nobody thought this was strange.
I live in the adjacent parish (county) just over the dividing line, and this does not include New Orleans, proper.
Other than Jack hating the heat, I think you would like it down here. I never mentioned the grocery stores, but if you knew what was available, you would be packing your bags and getting Jack a cooling vest. Apparently, there are wild hogs and coyotes encroaching from the spillway, and the Aussies might have some fun. Plus, your wife can pack the “big iron”, just in-case.
Regarding chains being overbuilt, it is a result of cheap money to finance growth, cheap money for sales, and growth and sales being used to increase stock price. When money becomes less cheap, growth and sales decrease. I expect some will become zombies like JCPenney and Sears.
It wouldn’t be the heat. It would be the humidity. I’d like it fine.
As I’ve mentioned before my family used to drive south to the Gulf Coast to find spring during our spring breaks. My parents would buy fish or shrimp directly from a fishing vessel. Probably the best seafood I’ve ever had. I ate at Court of Two Sisters in the French Quarter back in the 50s.
More recently I visited Lake Charles (like most of my traveling it was for work) in the 80s. Had a great time. I think I’ve told this anecdote before. When dinnertime rolled around I asked my hosts where the best place to eat was that I couldn’t get better back in Chicago. After thinking for a while they sent me to a little dive where I had the best Cajun food I’ve ever had.
I agree with your analysis. I am biased though because I have been spoiled by eating your cooking for many years.