Restaurant casualties of COVID-19

[danbrotherston]

Or do rents need to come down?

I have no idea what the economics look like...

Rents go down? Wholesale prices go down? Wages go down? Yes, all of these would help the economics. But the prices are the only thing that the restaurants are in control of. And even in the best of times most restaurants are low-margin businesses.

I propose that all the area restaurants apply a "COVID survival fee" of, say, 5% or 10%, to their final bills. It's not going to reduce business significantly and it can help the restaurants survive.

I don't really want that...I'd rather them just raise their prices by 10%.

But I don't even know if that would help, it would only matter if they are limited by space, most of the restaurants I see are not limited by space...if they are limited by customers, raising prices will drive away some of those customers.

Costs have to come down...or rather, economics must change, increasing inequality means there just isn't as much money in the hands of people who will spend it anymore.