tl;dr Author writes for both sides, made unwise investment decisions, doubled down, surprised it didn't work out, wants to blame customers. https://joelleparenteau.medium.com/why-restaurants-are-not-f...

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In the end, maybe the writer, is just a bad operator and being in an unsustainable business.
Being a restaurant operator is not for everyone.

Not everyone wants what you want as an operator. In the previous article, he went on about how much more protein his meats have over whatever next door restaurant had and that there was a labor cost of $2.58 per sandwich made. Even at $15/hr wage, that means en employee was expected to make shy of 6 sandwiches an hour at $60/hr gross revenue for $6 in net profit.

Personally, once an item surpasses $15, I will go and make it myself in my kitchen from grocery goods. Scale of Economy is supposed to reduce labor, cost and make a product consistent. Even before pandemic, I don't like not being aware of everything in my food and hidden sugars in sauces. I even think $10 is expensive per dish when compared to wholesaling shopping and making my own food - but I understand, this is a food business.

I don't understand why I, the reader, am supposed to feel sympathy for a poor business operator, especially when the new article linked above writes:

"For context, when I wrote the first post, we had just the one Wolf Down location in Ottawa. We’ve since opened our second location, in Vegas of all places (we raised funds for this, that’s another story for another post), and launched ghost kitchens in Toronto and Calgary (in partnership with REEF, no upfront cost to us)."

They essentially limited liability on opening a restaurant, crowdsourced investors who bought into the sympathy scheme and then continue to write about how unsustainable it is running this sort of business.

I still don't get it. Are these articles just an excuse, to mitigate liability and risk to the investors and saying "Hey guys, thanks for believing me in - but today's market circumstances are x,y,z - no profit but thanks for the money!"

Then with the conclusion:

"But I can’t do it alone. We have to do it together as an industry. And we need you, our guests. I ask for your help."

Why? This is the same mantra that /r/WSB has been sprouting about pubic companies, privatize profits, publicize debt and liability.

While it goes on to blame customers - a business itself survives on customers.

Restaurants aren't a right or a guarantee. Customers vote with their money and social media reviews. Owning a business isn't a right or guarantee to make a profit or living.

All in all, learning to cook for yourself is simply the best. Fast food, restaurants and related food companies really do seem overleverged right now in terms of the debt they've taken on for the profit potential. High risk and low reward,

But here's the kicker, the same author also wrote this just right after publishing "Why Restaurants are fucked."

https://joelleparenteau.medium.com/why-restaurants-are-not-f...

lol back and forth.

"COVID-19 was a wake up call. A catalyst for change. We were caught in a vicious cycle. Now our day of reckoning has arrived. And I, for one, am optimistic we can come back stronger than ever.

Besides low margins, there’s another critical issue we ignored for far too long: the restaurant industry is over-saturated. And too many restaurants cause hyper-competition and undercutting — triggering the race to the bottom. "