How's Business?

The whole "economy thing" is very difficult, as all of you can imagine. This article in yesterday's Washington Post struck me as pretty silly, really - I mean, oh, how ingenious, use the whole chicken!! Wow! why didn't we think of that before? We've been using the whole chicken for 22 years, and staying open through a few recessions in the process. But this one strikes me as different. Now that we are all spending at least $50 a week extra at the gas station, to fill up the car or truck or tractor, where are we getting that extra $50 from? No one I know has recently gotten a $50 raise to cover those higher grocery bills, that $4 a gallon gasoline. That $50 is coming from somewhere though, be it the college fund, the vacation fund, or the discretionary income fund -meaning: dining out. Have we seen a cut back? Yes, I think we have, although it's hard to compare this year with last so far. We'd only been open a month this time last year, and so we were pretty busy in June, being the new kid on the block and all. I think we'll really see a comparison with July and August. So far we are not complaining too much - I think we've been really lucky - but we probably should be busier. This past week we were very busy on Tuesday - for a Tuesday - moderate Wednesday, slow Thursday, busy Friday and slow again on Saturday. To be slow on Saturday really hurts - first of all, you need that weekend business to pay bills with, of course. But also your staff counts on those two weekend nights for the bulk of their income too. And besides, it looks really awful for customers to come into your restaurant on Saturday night at 8PM and the place is half empty - that is really depressing. And of course the customers know the economy is beat right now - they have to put gas in their car too, and buy milk and eggs - so they are expecting things to be off. Everyone asks me "how's business?", have you seen a slide? When it's a busy shift they think, oh, maybe the economy here in Kent County is okay; when they're here for a slow Saturday night, they think, oh, things are bad even here in Kent County.

Luckily Kevin knows how to order appropriately. And he knows how to use the whole chicken.

And a footnote - here's another article from the Post about why we feel gloomier than the situation warrants. This analysis goes hand in hand with the driver from AP who comes in weekly with his recitation of what the national news talking heads were spouting the evening before. Could it be that things really aren't so bad as people say? Not if you live in Cedar Rapids...