Entire Fast Food Clusters Closed due to lack of Workers

Just like many places in the US, we have a cluster of fast food place in a town near us.
McDonald’s, Burger King etc.

Several of them are now “temporarily” CLOSED due to lack of workers! Not one, or two or three, but several. People are starting to freak out a bit here now. Can’t get their Mcdee’s Coke, or Whopper, or Kentucky fried chicken. I think things are going to get weird here real soon. I noticed lots of noise on social media starting.

I know a lot of people want to blame unemployment benefits yada yada, I think that is a very small part.
Right now so many places are hiring at top wages, you’d be stupid to work fast food, so they aren’t. All the college kids I know
Are working at Menards, much higher pay and easy easy job. Teens are all working at Kwik Trip due to their very flexible hours.
Fast food better catch up or they are going to fold real quick. Bring out the robots, or higher pay or something. I think we are going to see a fast food revolution of sorts.

The other aspect of fast food, customers treat the workers like crap. I know a young lady that worked fast food during the height of Covid. The way she was treated was inexcusable. It wasn’t a rare thing either, it was a daily occurrence. She recently quit and I don’t blame her one bit. Who wants to work a thankless, low paying, greasy job?

www.fox6now.com...

Potratz said he’s increased wages for his line-cook position by as much as $3 an hour compared to pre-pandemic wages. The position now starts between $16 and $19 an hour, with a dollar-an-hour bonus after learning the menu, but still no bites.

Hmmm would you rather be a line cook, or work in an cushy air conditioned job for at least $5 more an hour?
Some restaurants are raising wages and trying to pass it onto customers, that isn’t working out so well either.
The fancy restaurants near us aren’t doing so hot either, so they are putting cute signs on their menus that says “nobody wants to work, please be patient”


I’ll give some insight to how short we are of workers here. I needed landscaping help and all the companies are booked. I paid teens $50hr to help and one of them never even returned!! Can you imagine $50 an hour as a teen? The neighbors offering $20hr for lawn help have no clue why nobody is responding.

Japan 157 Mc Donalds's stores closed due to corona virus
Japan over 60 Starbucks stores closed due to corona virus.

Just looked it up, McDonald's had it's worst profits in 13 years because of Covid, closing 200 locations. Fast food is trash, I hope all of the companies close their restaurants all over the world.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Is this also due because of the covid measures u know that thing?

originally posted by: game over man
Just looked it up, McDonald's had it's worst profits in 13 years because of Covid, closing 200 locations. Fast food is trash, I hope all of the companies close their restaurants all over the world.

Saturdays and Sundays are what keeping most McD's open here. Even the malls with McD's are understaffed.

a reply to: JAGStorm

what many people fail to realize, or just to be honest don't want to know is that there are many reasons for this issue.and as you have said, unemployment money is just a small part of it, if it is even a part of it at all. but it does make a convenient excuse that people can rile at, while they ignore the real issues behind it.

the biggest problem is that right now there is a ton of what people consider good jobs out there, open and theirs to apply for. the ONLY REASON people have in the past have taken such "crap jobs" is that they felt they had no choice. had no choice because for many people, regardless of skills and education, they were the only jobs open and available to them. and right now that situation is not being seen to exist. and as a result those "crap jobs" are being completely ignored. even worse for those crap job employers, their currant staff are seeing the same things, and thus are quitting, as they also try to get those good jobs that are now available. and the fact it is not just people not applying for those jobs, but are also leaving those jobs, actually shows that it has nothing to do with unemployment money.

and so the simple fact is that these so called crap jobs want staff, then they need to deal with why people consider them crap jobs in the first place. and pay is of course a part of it, it is not everything. of course these businesses are free to ignore this, and just not have staff for a couple or so years until the job market goes back to normal, where once again people will feel they have no other choice but to take these crap jobs, once again out of desperation. and one thing more that i suspect has helped greatly in making the problem worse, is all the commenting the last few years on articles about people in these jobs wanting fair pay for their work. comments like "if they want to make more money, they should go get a better job". and that is EXACTLY what we are seeing right now. and ironically it's many of those same people who made such comments now whining about the actually doing so.

so what is a "good job", and a "crap job?

a "good job". first a lot of it may be pay rates. not much menial, physical labor. jobs like desk jobs, where you sit most of the time instead of standing. full time hours. steady scheduling, such as 9-5, monday through friday. decent treatment by management, and especially those they "serve" and come into contact with. a feeling they might be actually doing something they might be proud to say they do.

so what are conditions like in retail and restaurants, known as "crap jobs". typically minimum wage, or even under minimum wage (making them dependent on the generosity of the public they serve to be "paid". something that needs to be outlawed). spending most of you shift on your feet. doing menial, physical labor. hours are not only not generally full time, but in many cases nowhere near steady. you might work 10 hours one week, and 30 hours another week. which means not having a reliable, steady income. and shifts can be all over the clock, any day of the week. which makes it hard to do things or plan things outside of work hours, typically only knowing what your shifts are maybe two weeks in advance. such jobs are known for having management harassing you, to get more and more work for their measly wages. and outright abused, even physically assaulted by customers, typically over things that said employee has no control over in the first place. made to feel like they deserve to be abused, and be poor, because they don't have a "good job".

so which type of job are you going to look for? which is really what the currant problem is. the ONLY reason people have taken these crap jobs", is because they were the only jobs available. and right now there are many "good jobs" available.

now these crap jobs could find the employees they need by doing two things. first fix the problems they are known for. such as giving full time hours. by giving steady scheduling, even if those shifts are something like 3pm to midnight, and say sunday thru thursday, or tuesday to saturday. you would be surprised at how people might actually WANT to work such a shift steadily. they can treat their staff better. and adopt no tolerance policies against irate customers. such as, if said custumer starts yelling or abusing staff, they are immediately kicked out and management refusing to even listen to their complaints. of course not everything can be nicely fixed, and that is where wages come into play even more. make it WORTH doing the labor, and dealing with the a$$hole public, by paying them that much more to make said job competitive with the "good jobs". likely paying MORE than those "good jobs, to make the crap job seen as the better choice for the prospective employee.