Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyingScot
This is exactly it--the widening split between the haves and have-nots. Some of us keep getting richer--more people in more second homes wanting more and better meals out. But this drives up the cost of real estate pushing younger and less wealthy folks further away. This dynamic is much more extreme than when we were young
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I see it more in the different spending appetites.
Not really much more different than the Cape, the Vineyard, or Nantucket...
The small cottages away from the water with the beautiful gardens in comparison to the waterfront lifestyles.
But where a business like Middleton Meredith used to focus on residents and seasonal (homeowners here all summer - not just weekends)... so it was only open Saturday for a half day... it transformed itself into also serving those weekenders.
It required the whole location to be rebuilt to handle the higher traffic and stocking.
When a restaurant would handle residents and seasonal, it knew that it would need X amount of seating and staff along with specific policies and advertising to handle that customer base. You change the customer base to weekenders included... and a whole host of issues takes hold very quickly.
Do I shutdown hours earlier in the week, so that I can beef up my staff on the weekend? How do I handle the extra seating? Can my kitchen keep up with the extra short term demand? Is it worth expending the capital to upgrade the kitchen? etc.
Any time you overload a link in the supply chain... it isn't going to come out well. It just takes time for management to adapt to the new normal, and some management will be faster than others.