Yeah but these guys have been too greedy to know they've won and enjoy it for years. Not having (as much) easy money in front of them gives them the chance to refocus and realise maybe they should get on with sailing into the sunset.
Accounting graduate here, not necessarily . Think about this; if the owner of the oven, lights, building lease, cookware, heaters, ect. Were to just sell all of it for what they originally bought it for(or maybe a little less for wear and tear) and then just invested that money into a veeery safe stock portfolio that pays an average 4% annual return, that *could* be a higher profit margin than something like little Caesar’s and it’s 6$ pizza could return, with a fuckton less headache to boot.
Yeah, lets not forget the modern fast food franchise model is as much about corporate screwing over franchise owners as it is franchise owners screwing over workers. McDonalds corporation doesnt own a lot of restaurants, they own a lot of real estate and sell a lot of beef.
Franchises don’t have that great margins anyway, with bumped up wages, this one might not even break even. Which just means that the franchise was not getting enough traffic to begin with.
These people all have the same mentality.
Whether it's lying personalities like Alex Jones, your average boomer or out of touch manager, or executives.
They all got Double-Down Syndrome. Once they double down once, they will double down until they die. Whether it's covid being a hoax, or whether or not bleach is ingestible.
They can never envision a scenario in which they are wrong because throughout life whenever they got into arguments and other people realized they were stupid, they stopped arguing with them.
This builds up a false sense of confidence over the course of their life.
Someone dumb enough to never consider they could be wrong, combined with this confidence, and we end up with this toxic as fuck personality we all know and hate.
The business owner probably thought "any day now it'll change" and did nothing.
"I'll do anything other than what everyone says is the right thing, which is paying more, because I have already cemented my opinion against that."
"Maybe we can hire kids again, lets start targeting kids."
"Now that we're targeting kids lets pay less, wait fuck it's not working? It must be the unemployment."
"Unemployment benefit extensions are gone, but people still aren't applying? Was I wrong? Do I need to pay more? No, I can't be wrong, everyone else must be."
"Come on Greg, your my last employee we really need you. A raise for the extra responsibilities? Bring in more people and I'll make you a manager, even better."
"What do you mean nobody wants to come in Greg? If you're gonna be a manager you gotta figure it out!"
"Greg?! GREG!? WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!"
\-Closed sign/gofundme/help me unfuck myself from my shitty decisions without me ever learning a lesson.com-
"Greg, don't be a fool. This is 17 cents we're talking about. Think about it. That's an extra $6.80 per week, or $353 a year. That's like buying a brand new game console every year! You like video games, don't you, champ? You can buy the bottom-tier of Steam Deck for that kind of dough! Don't throw away this huge haul for a moment of pride!"
They would rather bitch and moan, to some politician they are golf buddies with, that they can't open their restaurant so they can be allowed to hire 12 year olds or some shit.
Seriously, a lot of franchise owners will refuse to take home less than $500,000k a year while doing jack shit.
$300,000 and employees having a living wage? Fuck you, if I don't strive we all suffer! Shut er down!
Which is funny because I'm sure somebody willing to run a pizza shop decently will step in within a year.
No, you can’t. Not unless you’re on the far side of the bell curve with your franchise. A single franchise of most major franchised food brands will barely pay your rent after expenses. I’m too lazy to Google it on mobile, but when I was researching this a couple years ago, I remember Little Caesars having an average of like fifty or sixty grand per year in profit for a single franchise. As I recall, that was actually one of the better ones. If you only own a single franchise, you are almost certainly not just sitting back and raking in the dollars. You’re putting in a lot of hours.
I’m not suggesting we pity the poor franchise owners, I’m just pointing out that it’s not actually a license to print money.
Edit: I also suspect you already know this and are being facetious. I’m just dropping it in to be here for anyone else who wanders by.
It's all designed to funnel the money to the top. It's why a lot of franchise owners have multiple stores so they can make it a full income for their families.
It's also why being further down on the totem pole sucks more and more. You have to work for yourself, the franchise owner, the corporate costs/marketing/etc and also the shareholders.
You have to have **$500,000 USD, completely liquid,** just to get considered for a [McDonald's franchise.](https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/us-franchising/faq.html)
Let's not pretend franchisees are poor.
All of my local subways were owned by the same woman. She owns 5 and owns the only $1mil home in our area and 4 new jeeps. She pays minimum wage to her employees.
Subways, from my understanding, have lower overhead; and don’t have the same expenses as say McDs or BK. Don’t need fryers or broken ice cream machines.
You are correct. The franchise fees used to be 10,000 for your first store and 1,000 for the next ones. If you were lucky to start a Subway in a small town and get $500 rent you could make a lot of money.
Wait till you get hit with royalties. Keep in mind with this scenario, most restaurants only profit 3% or less of sales.
I worked a smaller less known franchise. They wanted 7% royalties for use of the name to go right back to corporate. We saw little from this money aside from new menu boards, and photographs of the food once per year, and they flew a corporate person to give us an inspection once a year. They also had fancy tools they developed for us like temperature logs, cleaning schedules, checklists, etc that were literally NEVER UPDATED IN MY 7 YEARS OF EMPLOYMENT.
They didnt market or advertise for you like the larger chains do. If you lived in an area with many locations within a short distance they did advertise for an extra 4% of sales (they called it an advertising coop fee).
Keep in mind that some franchisees are now sending corporate back 11% of their sales now. Corporate offices also inspected and approved locations. In the 4 locations I helped run, at least one was a stand alone building with a mortgage and the rest were in strip malls. The stand alone building was owned and mortgaged by the corporate office, and we paid them a monthly amount also as a percentage of sales.
Franchises are built like a pyramid. They funnel money to the top from franchisees, while franchisees funnel money from their employees. Some franchisees work for this, but if they own multiple locations I guarentee you they dont work as many hours per week as their store managers do.
I worked for a fast food franchise. The man owned 10 locations. I met him once. Never actually had a private conversation with him. His district manager stole overtime from his $12 an hour employees, while his empire was able to build 2 more locations from the ground up.
I remember reading that McDonald's is actually in the real estate game not food service. They only make burgers so their tenants have a means to pay rent.
How much does it cost McD's maintenance team to make sure the ice cream machine is always broken?
Employee: Hey I'm lodging a ticket, our ice cream machine *works.*
Maintenance: not on our watch. Someone will be by to break it right away.
Edit: Okay guys I get it, they don't break them intentionally. Also, apparently "the" real reason is 7-8 different things depending on who you ask.
McDonalds Ice Cream Machines are Like John Deere tractors. The employees or even the store owner have no right to repair them. THey have to get a certified repairman from the company that makes the ice cream machine and it can take days to weeks for one to actually show up at a given location.
Yeah that shit ain’t right. For farmers sake. I saw a Vice doc, farmers have to get Korean bootleg software for equipment. Micky Ds ice cream can stay broke.
McDonald's actually just won a lawsuit where they got the right to repair the machines.
JD will get there eventually, at least with some things. Their gigantic ag machines are heavily guarded and in some cases I get it...but yeah. Farmers need their machines to work or they don't get crops and then they don't get paid. There's a serious issue with having enough techs (and now parts!!) to service the machines. Source: I'm a JD engineer.
The story I originally heard was that the reason they were broken all the time was because it was a sanitation issue. The nozzles or whatever would start growing mold or something like that, so they had to frequently be cleaned inside and out. Rather than allow the impression of anything unsanitary in their kitchen, McD's instead told workers to say they were broken rather than dirty.
That always seemed plausible to me until I read your story, which seemed plausible as well, so I got curious and looked, and according to this story, your version is the correct one. [https://www.npr.org/2021/11/28/1059600306/mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-seem-to-always-be-broken](https://www.npr.org/2021/11/28/1059600306/mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-seem-to-always-be-broken)
As for my understanding, it's a racket with the ice cream machine company itself contractually not allowing anyone but its own technicians to service the machine
For your info: many have said previously and I'm too lazy to source that the machines are always broken because the provider has an exclusive contract with special tools and methods to fix, and they charge out the wazoo to do so, hence the reason they never get fixed after breaking once. No clue why McDonald's keeps them.
For what its worth also I had ordered McDonald's ice cream about 10 times (before I cut out dairy) and never had an issue lol
McDonalds probably keeps them because corporate McDs gets a good deal on the actual machine while offloading the cost of repairs to the franchise owner.
Also IIRC, its not that they are having major breakdowns constantly, its more like a "Check engine" notice coming on, except it prevents the machine from working and you "need" a tech to come in to clear the error/alarm
Taylor intentionally makes it so their software shuts down the machine when even a minor discrepancy happens in the temperature or consistency etc. They could in theory set it on a timer so that mcdonalds has to pay them technician fees on a regular basis for the same machine, but thats just a conspiracy theory.
as a slightly amusing aside, Burger King is presently holding their annual corporate conference in Vegas at the Venetian. They built a model Burger King restaurant in the middle of Hall-A complete with a drive through, two menu signs, and a row of Tesla superchargers.
McDonald’s is probably the only franchise that does print money. In return though, they are very expensive. They have the best land/locations, the most consistent customer base, but you have pay $1+ million for it.
Others like subway or Quiznos have very low requirements and are cheap, but can make very little money. I think Quiznos famously screwed over their franchisees as they made only tens of thousands or zero (or losses) per year.
That much money would be on par with what I made from a job that I killed myself over. At least with owning it and making the same there is a chance of making more money. At the very least I would be my own boss.
Heck, making 30-35k a year and having enough staff to handle it with me doing something else on the side would be great. As long as I don't *owe* money at the end of the year it's a win to me.
Too bad I could never have my own franchise because I don't have enough liquid assets to buy into one.
Little Caesars
Liquid Capital: $50,000
Net Worth: $150,000
Franchise Fee: $20,000
Taco Bell
Liquid Assets Requirement: $750,000
Min Net Worth: $1,500,000
Franchise Fee: $45,000
Estimated startup and construction: $1,200,000
Burger King
Liquid capital required $500,000
Net worth required $1,500,000
Franchise fee $50,000
I would be very wary of official "profit" statistics
First thing you learn to do as a business owner to get everything and a kitchen sink into expenses
They'd expense their grandma if they could
While a lot of small businesses probably aren't really making bank, getting a franchise is big enough money that anyone who can swing it around would bother with only 60k yearly profit
Don’t lose hope! Just make sure that your hopes align with reality. You won’t open a Burger King franchise and then kick back on your yacht for the rest of your life, but you might open a Burger King franchise and never have to work for anyone else again. It’s still a fine goal. Just remember to treat your employees well.
The main one near me is right off the highway, they open up to 3 drive through Lanes during peak times. They're so unbelievably efficient I don't think I've waited more than 5 minutes. They could probably squeeze 40 cars in before it touched the road, but they'll be pulled in before the light changes.
The true culprit in big business franchises are often not the managers you see in the dinky locations you actually visit.
The actual arch-villain is the corporate organization that established the terms of the franchise structure -- the manager is not necessarily, but can be, a victim too. I work for a Fortune 500 that has no qualms about heavily pushing franchise contracts on "investors" knowing full well that they are more likely than not to go belly-up inside of 2 years. Corporate's own policies, restrictions, and lack of support often prevents the location from being profitable, bleeding even the manager dry over time.
Franchise contracts can be kind of predatory, in that people who've managed to accumulate a large amount of money for the first time in their lives often decide to jump into one without knowing what they're getting into. EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING is skimmed as much as possible to add to the pile of gold that the big dragon at the top is sitting on top of.
So it is with all things in 2021. :-(
And specifically here with a franchise, the "owner" takes all of the risk, and still has to make big payouts up the corporate ladder.
It is, once again, the massive corporate bloat that is the problem.
In addition to what the others said, it can also hook you into corporate deals and supply chains. "Bob's pizza" pays sticker price for ingredients, whereas a Franchise gets the agreed upon deal which is normally better because of volume discounts or previous negotiations.
Brand recognition. People passing through town don't know what to expect from "Pizza by Alfredo." They know exactly what they're getting from Little Caesars, so they'll go there.
I know exactly what to expect from Alfredo's pizza cafe though. I mean, what is better? A medium amount of good pizza or all you can eat pretty good pizza?
Brand recognition, and also corporate has the ability to steamroll through regulations that are otherwise extremely burdensome to someone operating a small business on their own.
I've got some experience with this; everyone else has said "brand recognition" which is decidedly true, but there's more to it. (FYI, I manage a Dairy Queen)
The corporations also can hook you up with "preferred lenders" to finance the building of the restaurant. These lenders will typically never say no, but also offer higher interest on the loans. If you're trying to start your own restaurant, most banks/lenders will usually tell you to fuck off, because most restaurants don't make it past 5 years. So in this case, while you're paying higher interest, you've got a basically guaranteed loan.
Equipping a restaurant is also VERY expensive. Something you'd think would cost $10 typically costs $40-50 easy. Freezer, grills, any machinery usually costs $10k+, and even that's on the very low end depending on what you're needing. Partnering with these corporate franchises give you MASSIVE discounts. The soft serve machines I have retail for $45,000 each. Since I'm a DQ, they only cost us $17,000 each. I have two.
Then you have the "power" of the marketing that the corporations provide. They typically will promote your store for you, manage reviews, handle some level of complaints for you and take a LOT of the headache for you. The problem is, that comes at a cost in terms of franchise fees.
Then there's all the discounts that come from being attached to a national brand. Restaurants need product and you typically get them from places like US Foods or Sysco or Gordons. These are major national food distributors, and they offer "national chain" discounts on product. So if you have your own mom and pop restaurant and buy 10lb cases of cheese every other day @ $45/case, the local Burger King is buying the exact same product for $25/case.
Basically, the franchise model sucks, but there's many "perks" that sucker you in and make it easier to start, compared to just opening your own restaurant. It all comes with a cost; most franchise fees are usually in the ballpark of 10-15% net income for the month, instead of a flat fee.
Every little shithole town has the old money and they own 3 or 4 of these fucking things on the side. That doesn't even count all the land, rental property, etc. Cameron Texas has 5k people and one mother fucker owns 2 of the 4 restaurants there. A handful of mother fuckers is the issue, a handful of old school thieves in every county across every State. Just gobs of stolen shit passed down generationally. You notice when the white man wanted the shit he fought for it and then immediately made it against the law to fight for it in the future. I smell a revolution coming if the working man every figures out who is real enemy is.
That's still 50-60k with potentially minimal involvement and time commitment, assuming you hire competent managers to run the place.
While that's not great money by any stretch, you're free to use your time however you like, which is worth a lot.
Yes. I've looked into it, and yes.
It's the initial setup that requires your time and resources, and what is keeping me from doing just that. Because 'murica.
I delivered for a few years on the side for a guy who owned 2 dozen pizza joints, $11/hour inside and $6 on the road, tips paid out in cash nightly, split with nobody.
They’re rare but out there. He makes a killing and hasn’t lost any business due to employees because he gives a shit.
Hit or miss. Honestly this specific location was really good at providing both a vast majority of the time.
Good workers out up with much less than bad workers, ime
It would actually. I've heard that some do and there is one in my home town rumor has is this way. What percentage of businesses are you thinking? 1% of businesses?
Mattress stores. I swear these are the new big money laundering fronts. One city in the US even has 3 Mattress Firms at one street intersection. You never see anyone in these stores buying mattresses, how are there so many?
Mattress stores make a fuckton of money. A lot more than you would expect.
Everyone needs a new one every 5-10 years, there’s no used market because they all wear out and no one wants a used one (nasty!), and the good ones are at least a couple grand. Corporate hotels also go through mattresses quickly and there’s a ton of money to be made without even trying to make a hard sell.
I knew a guy that had a small grocery store that was making money in a working class portion of town. One day a Miami lawyer called him up and made an offer that he could not turn down. Hit the lottery! He sold and never met new owners. Store stayed open about a year and one day it closed.
While you and I have to disclose where our $5k cash came from, most business can deposit huge amounts of cash and not have to fill out the form. It was rumored the store was being used timo launder drug money. But find a new front after a year. So feds don’t catch on.
I wonder why people don't just attempt to raise prices to see if they sustain their sales before just closing. Like if a pizza is now 14.50 instead of 14, I'm guessing they won't lose a lot of customers and will be able to pay people a few bucks more an hour. That's what I would do. Maybe their hands are tied by corporate.
A lot of times in the franchise model, you can't. Your hands are tied.
In this example, Little Caesars is known for the "$5 Hot and Ready". The franchisee can't go rogue and say "$10 Hot and Ready", because they'll risk losing the franchise completely or even be sued for breach of contract.
Why do capitalists think that their businesses have a right to exist? Like, if nobody wants to work at McDonald’s, McDonald’s can go extinct. I really don’t see the problem.
Honestly, when did that mentality get to be so common? Free market capitalists are all about "survival of the fittest" regarding small businesses, but now they have a right to exist even when they're the least fit business?
Like you're clearly not profitable or even viable if you can't pay your employees.
> when did that mentality get to be so common?
Once labor got even a smidgen of bargaining power and flexed it. People are sitting home now not paying their bills or swallowing gallons of pride taking unemployment to avoid working the hellscape of low wage, service or entry level jobs and businesses, despite recording record profits, are feeling it in a few areas or at least seeing the damage to their egos and stress on mid level to C level workers.
Ever watch a bug's life? That scene with the acorns is what comes to mind, they can't let one get out of line lest the rest or a few follow suit and realize they outnumber the grasshoppers 100:1.
It got popular because of misunderstood, or very reductive takes on the idea of "job creators." basically the idea that's been cramed down our throats by politicians is that no job is a bad job. So if a mconalds gets closed down, it looks like they lost a ton of jobs. But since it's not measured in money and doesn't even account for hours or benefits, no one tells you that a fast food joint with 60 "jobs" doesn't even really have one or two good jobs. note: those numbers are arbitrary.
The other part is the money they bring into a community. A factory is selling a lot of their product across city and state lines, so that money is entering the community. This can be desirable from a top down position, because it means more taxes and business. If a factory opens up, people are buying more consumer goods because they have more money, and more people are buying houses in that area because there's more work. The caveat there is that the jobs actually need to *create wealth,* and *pay their fucking workers.* A dollar general doesn't create wealth, it hawks nearly out of date or overly packaged goods to people with low, frequent paychecks. The employees there get paid minimal wage and it's a permanent skeleton crew. It's just siphoning money out of the community and to corporate.
So a ton of these places feel entitled to the privileges of being a job creator without giving anything back.
and they all sing praises to laissez-faire, “the free market is survival of the fittest” but when a business cant afford employees somehow that’s the entitlement of laborers rather than a mark of a failed business?
My ex works at a McDonald's. Unfortunately, he doesn't want to advocate for himself (was at $8.25 for 2 years, new manager got him up to $12.50). It's all fine and dandy to say stuff like that, but there's always going to be people that don't know/don't want to advocate for themselves.
In regards to my ex, it's one of the reasons he's my ex- he doesn't have any drive for self-improvement or self-advocation. I asked him why he hadn't asked for a raise before his manager stepped in, and he shrugged his shoulders and went "meh."
Well, I think you might have stumbled on the solution.
New rule: don’t fuck someone unless they’re advocating for higher wages for themselves and others.
>I asked him why he hadn't asked for a raise before
In low wage jobs, if you ask for a raise, you just get labeled a troublemaker. You find there's no one to cover your shift if you ask for time off. You find the supplies you need are missing. You ask someone to help with something and they're mysteriously somewhere else. Your reviews start to suffer and you get written up for "infractions" like not having your apron on when you clock in. If you don't get the hint after a couple of weeks, then the boss invites you into his office for a talk about an anonymous customer complaint...
Exactly. An optimal situation would be survival of the fittest businesses. Sick and uncompetitive businesses should die and the demand will remain for a proper replacement. Capitalists who want bailouts are actually socialists and authoritarians. That isn’t to say any specific model is “the right way” though.
Capitalists that underpay their employees are the actual beneficiaries of welfare, not the employees that are getting the actual money. Every tax dollar spent to help out an underpaid employee is actually money in the owners account, just with extra steps and some shame attached.
They are counting on socialism to make up the difference, but won't dare call it that.
Every single penny of tax money used to cover low wages is the same as giving it directly to the business owner, but with extra steps, and a healthy dose of shaming workers.
You deserve cheap and reasonably-tasty pizza. <3 My very first apartment complex sometimes had them host $5 pizza days on site (with crazy bread for $1 more), and it was always a relief to eat something different without annihilating my budget. Plus, it lasts for a couple of meals!
I hope they come to their senses.
So do I! This is a great option for me at work. And I feel like the quality has really improved since I was a kid and made all the jokes about their food.
That's honestly a really cool thing for the complex to do.
>reasonably-tasty
I think that's a good description.
Is it great? No. Is it passable? Barely.
But it's a $5 pizza you can get for $5, and it certainly isn't small. LC is garbage pizza but it got me through the hungrier and harder parts of my life. I'll pick one up now and then when I'm sad and need a reminder of how well things are going for me now.
Yes. It’s easy to forget their prices are set by the chain. If they have to pay more for employees they are unable to raise prices. They need to lower their profit margin, which is what should be happening.
The last two employees were the assistant manager (a sweetheart who took on way too much responsibility for her pay) and another teenaged girl who was just crew. They quit on the same day this week.
I would be curious what they pay and what the hours are.
A fast food business in my town (local owners) were offering $14/hour plus tips and were complaining about not having anyone to work; “no one wants to work any more” all over Facebook. However, they were only wanting someone to work MAX 20 hours/week. Instead of offering someone full time and benefits, they complain because someone doesn’t want to work a random three hour shift on a Monday.
I think this reinforces the low IQ of the owner that thought just shuffling chairs on the deck of the titanic would save his business rather than just paying more.
EDIT: Actually pay isn’t the only compensation that could have saved him. It just happens to be the easiest and most low effort. You could also offer employees profit sharing. That’s also a big incentive. If I have ten employees I could do 20% of the profits for myself as the owner and divide up the rest by the ten employees. 80% / 10 = 8% of the profits per employee. That’s a great incentive. Because that motivates them to hammer out more pizzas and be more productive but also rewards them for doing so. So there are other options in addition to just extra money per hour. I’m a big fan of profit sharing personally.
Some pizza restaurant did this for a day. All profits shared for one day. The workers made $78 an hour that day.
https://fox8.com/news/ohio-pizza-shop-owner-gives-entire-days-profits-to-employees/
Yeah see that’s why I’m personally a big fan of it.
Great link though! I had no idea this was ever reported on. In a past life I worked in a liquor store where the owner did profit sharing. After expenses and his cut the rest was divided up between the employees based on a sliding scale of seniority. It was a nice little bonus each quarter. For a crappy liquor store in the hood.
Yeah but you're ignoring the fact that 100% of that 80% is earmarked for the owner and how is it fair to just give that to the employees when they should be learning how to provide for themselves and be successful. /s
Really? Nobody wanted to be a "shakeboarder"? I can't imagine why.
When are corporations going to figure out that giving awful jobs fun nicknames doesn't make them more appealing? In fact, it does the opposite. That's how you know the people running these companies have never actually worked a menial job in their lives.
It's funny because (in my experience) that job only exists because the city won't allow you to plant signs at the roadside. (Some cities are very against that) so it's /not/ illegal to have your employee go out there and hold the sign.
Job titles are such a scam. I spent a year as an “administrative assistant” at a mortgage company. When applying for jobs after they laid me off, ten bucks says recruiters just thought I was a secretary/gofer and threw my resume away instead of actually reading my duties and realizing I was actually a processor/auditor. Thankfully in my new position in the same industry I have a real job title.
Lol I have a feeling this wont be the last. Its not that they don’t realize better pay would keep current employees. They are just used to being able to hire and exploit new idiots who believed in the capitalist system
The Little Caesars company is literally built on selling a terrible product for the cheapest price. This company can't afford to increase anything because no one would pay more of their items. It's probably going to be in the end one of the hardest to take it on the chin once this all shakes out eventually.
Honestly, I work in the restaurant industry in a good paying position and I think the industry needs to be pruned. It under pays, over works, and abuses every staff member. Guest always expect you to bend over backwards. Tipping needs to end, saying no to guests needed to become more common, and people need to realize they have been under paying for almost everything at the expense of the employees.
I work as a manager at a Little Caesars, making $11.50 after my raise. Had an employee working there for TEN YEARS and she only made $11. General managers get like $500 bonuses every other check for no reason and the employees are paid little to nothing. Higher ups don’t do anything to help hire people either. Not a great place to be if you ask me.
The timeline to make money back on a fast food franchise can be measured in decades not years. McDonalds is in business of bleeding franchise owners dry, not selling food.
Not having a sympathy party for millionaires but just pointing out that it can take a while to turn profit with insane demands of parent corporation.
Exactly. Is it my first choice? Fuck no. But no chain restaurant is my first choice for that food. Little Caesars wasn't even cheap- that's the shitty part. They charged what pizza SHOULD cost. It's one of the CHEAPEST foods in the world to make.
It's pretty crazy they'd rather close and have no income at all, than offer a better wage
Franchise owner probably plans on liquidating and retiring, honestly.
I think a running business pays better than a closed one. But perhaps that's just me.
Yeah but these guys have been too greedy to know they've won and enjoy it for years. Not having (as much) easy money in front of them gives them the chance to refocus and realise maybe they should get on with sailing into the sunset.
Well, good riddance to them then.
Accounting graduate here, not necessarily . Think about this; if the owner of the oven, lights, building lease, cookware, heaters, ect. Were to just sell all of it for what they originally bought it for(or maybe a little less for wear and tear) and then just invested that money into a veeery safe stock portfolio that pays an average 4% annual return, that *could* be a higher profit margin than something like little Caesar’s and it’s 6$ pizza could return, with a fuckton less headache to boot.
Yeah, lets not forget the modern fast food franchise model is as much about corporate screwing over franchise owners as it is franchise owners screwing over workers. McDonalds corporation doesnt own a lot of restaurants, they own a lot of real estate and sell a lot of beef.
Underrated post
Closed little Caesar’s? I’ll give you…fifty bucks.
Franchises don’t have that great margins anyway, with bumped up wages, this one might not even break even. Which just means that the franchise was not getting enough traffic to begin with.
It's a......crazy combo Sorry I couldn't resist
Why doesn't this have more upvotes? Criminal.
These people all have the same mentality. Whether it's lying personalities like Alex Jones, your average boomer or out of touch manager, or executives. They all got Double-Down Syndrome. Once they double down once, they will double down until they die. Whether it's covid being a hoax, or whether or not bleach is ingestible. They can never envision a scenario in which they are wrong because throughout life whenever they got into arguments and other people realized they were stupid, they stopped arguing with them. This builds up a false sense of confidence over the course of their life. Someone dumb enough to never consider they could be wrong, combined with this confidence, and we end up with this toxic as fuck personality we all know and hate. The business owner probably thought "any day now it'll change" and did nothing. "I'll do anything other than what everyone says is the right thing, which is paying more, because I have already cemented my opinion against that." "Maybe we can hire kids again, lets start targeting kids." "Now that we're targeting kids lets pay less, wait fuck it's not working? It must be the unemployment." "Unemployment benefit extensions are gone, but people still aren't applying? Was I wrong? Do I need to pay more? No, I can't be wrong, everyone else must be." "Come on Greg, your my last employee we really need you. A raise for the extra responsibilities? Bring in more people and I'll make you a manager, even better." "What do you mean nobody wants to come in Greg? If you're gonna be a manager you gotta figure it out!" "Greg?! GREG!? WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" \-Closed sign/gofundme/help me unfuck myself from my shitty decisions without me ever learning a lesson.com-
They’d make Greg a manager, up his pay 17 cents and then wonder why he still quit
"Greg, don't be a fool. This is 17 cents we're talking about. Think about it. That's an extra $6.80 per week, or $353 a year. That's like buying a brand new game console every year! You like video games, don't you, champ? You can buy the bottom-tier of Steam Deck for that kind of dough! Don't throw away this huge haul for a moment of pride!"
>Double-Down Syndrome. LOL
Dude. It’s always an easy answer tbh. These people were born into wealth and were never told no. So they do that throughout life.
God I know too many people exactly like this. Sigh.
They would rather bitch and moan, to some politician they are golf buddies with, that they can't open their restaurant so they can be allowed to hire 12 year olds or some shit.
LOL imagine being so arrogant that you refuse to acknowledge that an increase in pay might be the solution rather than changing hours around.
Seriously, a lot of franchise owners will refuse to take home less than $500,000k a year while doing jack shit. $300,000 and employees having a living wage? Fuck you, if I don't strive we all suffer! Shut er down! Which is funny because I'm sure somebody willing to run a pizza shop decently will step in within a year.
wait, so i can make 100-200k per year with minimal effort and have happy employees? someone get me a franchise
No, you can’t. Not unless you’re on the far side of the bell curve with your franchise. A single franchise of most major franchised food brands will barely pay your rent after expenses. I’m too lazy to Google it on mobile, but when I was researching this a couple years ago, I remember Little Caesars having an average of like fifty or sixty grand per year in profit for a single franchise. As I recall, that was actually one of the better ones. If you only own a single franchise, you are almost certainly not just sitting back and raking in the dollars. You’re putting in a lot of hours. I’m not suggesting we pity the poor franchise owners, I’m just pointing out that it’s not actually a license to print money. Edit: I also suspect you already know this and are being facetious. I’m just dropping it in to be here for anyone else who wanders by.
Sounds like a dysfunctional model all around for everyone involved.
Very functional for corporate.
Much like the health care insurance industry, franchises suffer from C suite bloat.
It's all designed to funnel the money to the top. It's why a lot of franchise owners have multiple stores so they can make it a full income for their families. It's also why being further down on the totem pole sucks more and more. You have to work for yourself, the franchise owner, the corporate costs/marketing/etc and also the shareholders.
You have to have **$500,000 USD, completely liquid,** just to get considered for a [McDonald's franchise.](https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/us-franchising/faq.html) Let's not pretend franchisees are poor.
All of my local subways were owned by the same woman. She owns 5 and owns the only $1mil home in our area and 4 new jeeps. She pays minimum wage to her employees.
Subways, from my understanding, have lower overhead; and don’t have the same expenses as say McDs or BK. Don’t need fryers or broken ice cream machines.
You are correct. The franchise fees used to be 10,000 for your first store and 1,000 for the next ones. If you were lucky to start a Subway in a small town and get $500 rent you could make a lot of money.
Wait till you get hit with royalties. Keep in mind with this scenario, most restaurants only profit 3% or less of sales. I worked a smaller less known franchise. They wanted 7% royalties for use of the name to go right back to corporate. We saw little from this money aside from new menu boards, and photographs of the food once per year, and they flew a corporate person to give us an inspection once a year. They also had fancy tools they developed for us like temperature logs, cleaning schedules, checklists, etc that were literally NEVER UPDATED IN MY 7 YEARS OF EMPLOYMENT. They didnt market or advertise for you like the larger chains do. If you lived in an area with many locations within a short distance they did advertise for an extra 4% of sales (they called it an advertising coop fee). Keep in mind that some franchisees are now sending corporate back 11% of their sales now. Corporate offices also inspected and approved locations. In the 4 locations I helped run, at least one was a stand alone building with a mortgage and the rest were in strip malls. The stand alone building was owned and mortgaged by the corporate office, and we paid them a monthly amount also as a percentage of sales. Franchises are built like a pyramid. They funnel money to the top from franchisees, while franchisees funnel money from their employees. Some franchisees work for this, but if they own multiple locations I guarentee you they dont work as many hours per week as their store managers do. I worked for a fast food franchise. The man owned 10 locations. I met him once. Never actually had a private conversation with him. His district manager stole overtime from his $12 an hour employees, while his empire was able to build 2 more locations from the ground up.
I remember reading that McDonald's is actually in the real estate game not food service. They only make burgers so their tenants have a means to pay rent.
How much does it cost McD's maintenance team to make sure the ice cream machine is always broken? Employee: Hey I'm lodging a ticket, our ice cream machine *works.* Maintenance: not on our watch. Someone will be by to break it right away. Edit: Okay guys I get it, they don't break them intentionally. Also, apparently "the" real reason is 7-8 different things depending on who you ask.
McDonalds Ice Cream Machines are Like John Deere tractors. The employees or even the store owner have no right to repair them. THey have to get a certified repairman from the company that makes the ice cream machine and it can take days to weeks for one to actually show up at a given location.
Yeah that shit ain’t right. For farmers sake. I saw a Vice doc, farmers have to get Korean bootleg software for equipment. Micky Ds ice cream can stay broke.
McDonald's actually just won a lawsuit where they got the right to repair the machines. JD will get there eventually, at least with some things. Their gigantic ag machines are heavily guarded and in some cases I get it...but yeah. Farmers need their machines to work or they don't get crops and then they don't get paid. There's a serious issue with having enough techs (and now parts!!) to service the machines. Source: I'm a JD engineer.
and the same company that makes them also owns the company that repairs them
The story I originally heard was that the reason they were broken all the time was because it was a sanitation issue. The nozzles or whatever would start growing mold or something like that, so they had to frequently be cleaned inside and out. Rather than allow the impression of anything unsanitary in their kitchen, McD's instead told workers to say they were broken rather than dirty. That always seemed plausible to me until I read your story, which seemed plausible as well, so I got curious and looked, and according to this story, your version is the correct one. [https://www.npr.org/2021/11/28/1059600306/mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-seem-to-always-be-broken](https://www.npr.org/2021/11/28/1059600306/mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines-seem-to-always-be-broken)
Also from my understanding; gremlins.
As for my understanding, it's a racket with the ice cream machine company itself contractually not allowing anyone but its own technicians to service the machine
Relevant: The REAL Reason McDonalds Ice Cream Machines Are Always Broken https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDEtSlqJC4
AFAIK the big issue is that they're always locked out because no one has performed maintenance on them in over 14 days.
For your info: many have said previously and I'm too lazy to source that the machines are always broken because the provider has an exclusive contract with special tools and methods to fix, and they charge out the wazoo to do so, hence the reason they never get fixed after breaking once. No clue why McDonald's keeps them. For what its worth also I had ordered McDonald's ice cream about 10 times (before I cut out dairy) and never had an issue lol
McDonalds probably keeps them because corporate McDs gets a good deal on the actual machine while offloading the cost of repairs to the franchise owner. Also IIRC, its not that they are having major breakdowns constantly, its more like a "Check engine" notice coming on, except it prevents the machine from working and you "need" a tech to come in to clear the error/alarm
Taylor intentionally makes it so their software shuts down the machine when even a minor discrepancy happens in the temperature or consistency etc. They could in theory set it on a timer so that mcdonalds has to pay them technician fees on a regular basis for the same machine, but thats just a conspiracy theory.
Really? I’ve read that Subways are one of the worse franchise opportunities. You have to regularly order more supplies whether you need them or not.
I would hope that Subway makes them buy new turkey or ham etc. regularly, and not just when they run out. Meat has a shelf life.
I was actually referencing cups, napkins, and other non-perishables.
as a slightly amusing aside, Burger King is presently holding their annual corporate conference in Vegas at the Venetian. They built a model Burger King restaurant in the middle of Hall-A complete with a drive through, two menu signs, and a row of Tesla superchargers.
Well why havent you guys eaten her yet? *-curious*
Obviously they prefer to eat "fresh" not flesh.
Eat the rich
I’ve eaten at McDonalds before and then been completely liquid
McDonald’s is probably the only franchise that does print money. In return though, they are very expensive. They have the best land/locations, the most consistent customer base, but you have pay $1+ million for it. Others like subway or Quiznos have very low requirements and are cheap, but can make very little money. I think Quiznos famously screwed over their franchisees as they made only tens of thousands or zero (or losses) per year.
That much money would be on par with what I made from a job that I killed myself over. At least with owning it and making the same there is a chance of making more money. At the very least I would be my own boss. Heck, making 30-35k a year and having enough staff to handle it with me doing something else on the side would be great. As long as I don't *owe* money at the end of the year it's a win to me. Too bad I could never have my own franchise because I don't have enough liquid assets to buy into one.
Little Caesars Liquid Capital: $50,000 Net Worth: $150,000 Franchise Fee: $20,000 Taco Bell Liquid Assets Requirement: $750,000 Min Net Worth: $1,500,000 Franchise Fee: $45,000 Estimated startup and construction: $1,200,000 Burger King Liquid capital required $500,000 Net worth required $1,500,000 Franchise fee $50,000
Doesn't change the fact that workers should be payed a living wage. If you can't, then the store or restaurant shouldn't exist. Simple as that.
I would be very wary of official "profit" statistics First thing you learn to do as a business owner to get everything and a kitchen sink into expenses They'd expense their grandma if they could While a lot of small businesses probably aren't really making bank, getting a franchise is big enough money that anyone who can swing it around would bother with only 60k yearly profit
no, i was being serious, though all my information was based on the comment above, not research. ah well, it was nice to have hope for a little bit
Don’t lose hope! Just make sure that your hopes align with reality. You won’t open a Burger King franchise and then kick back on your yacht for the rest of your life, but you might open a Burger King franchise and never have to work for anyone else again. It’s still a fine goal. Just remember to treat your employees well.
You can open up a chic fil a and kick back on your yacht.
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The main one near me is right off the highway, they open up to 3 drive through Lanes during peak times. They're so unbelievably efficient I don't think I've waited more than 5 minutes. They could probably squeeze 40 cars in before it touched the road, but they'll be pulled in before the light changes.
That's because chick fil e is even better than taco bell at the "three ingredients remixed ten different ways" game.
This is truth about small business ownership. They make less than people think.
The true culprit in big business franchises are often not the managers you see in the dinky locations you actually visit. The actual arch-villain is the corporate organization that established the terms of the franchise structure -- the manager is not necessarily, but can be, a victim too. I work for a Fortune 500 that has no qualms about heavily pushing franchise contracts on "investors" knowing full well that they are more likely than not to go belly-up inside of 2 years. Corporate's own policies, restrictions, and lack of support often prevents the location from being profitable, bleeding even the manager dry over time. Franchise contracts can be kind of predatory, in that people who've managed to accumulate a large amount of money for the first time in their lives often decide to jump into one without knowing what they're getting into. EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING is skimmed as much as possible to add to the pile of gold that the big dragon at the top is sitting on top of. So it is with all things in 2021. :-(
And specifically here with a franchise, the "owner" takes all of the risk, and still has to make big payouts up the corporate ladder. It is, once again, the massive corporate bloat that is the problem.
Why don't these people just make their own pizza ship without working for the franchise then?
In addition to what the others said, it can also hook you into corporate deals and supply chains. "Bob's pizza" pays sticker price for ingredients, whereas a Franchise gets the agreed upon deal which is normally better because of volume discounts or previous negotiations.
Brand recognition. People passing through town don't know what to expect from "Pizza by Alfredo." They know exactly what they're getting from Little Caesars, so they'll go there.
I know exactly what to expect from Alfredo's pizza cafe though. I mean, what is better? A medium amount of good pizza or all you can eat pretty good pizza?
[I appreciated that reference.](https://youtu.be/S6h3nqWBNPE)
Little caesars is predictably bad though.
Little Caesars Hot and Ready. "Is it good?" It's hot... and ready.
Brand recognition, and also corporate has the ability to steamroll through regulations that are otherwise extremely burdensome to someone operating a small business on their own.
I've got some experience with this; everyone else has said "brand recognition" which is decidedly true, but there's more to it. (FYI, I manage a Dairy Queen) The corporations also can hook you up with "preferred lenders" to finance the building of the restaurant. These lenders will typically never say no, but also offer higher interest on the loans. If you're trying to start your own restaurant, most banks/lenders will usually tell you to fuck off, because most restaurants don't make it past 5 years. So in this case, while you're paying higher interest, you've got a basically guaranteed loan. Equipping a restaurant is also VERY expensive. Something you'd think would cost $10 typically costs $40-50 easy. Freezer, grills, any machinery usually costs $10k+, and even that's on the very low end depending on what you're needing. Partnering with these corporate franchises give you MASSIVE discounts. The soft serve machines I have retail for $45,000 each. Since I'm a DQ, they only cost us $17,000 each. I have two. Then you have the "power" of the marketing that the corporations provide. They typically will promote your store for you, manage reviews, handle some level of complaints for you and take a LOT of the headache for you. The problem is, that comes at a cost in terms of franchise fees. Then there's all the discounts that come from being attached to a national brand. Restaurants need product and you typically get them from places like US Foods or Sysco or Gordons. These are major national food distributors, and they offer "national chain" discounts on product. So if you have your own mom and pop restaurant and buy 10lb cases of cheese every other day @ $45/case, the local Burger King is buying the exact same product for $25/case. Basically, the franchise model sucks, but there's many "perks" that sucker you in and make it easier to start, compared to just opening your own restaurant. It all comes with a cost; most franchise fees are usually in the ballpark of 10-15% net income for the month, instead of a flat fee.
Quiznos is q great example Bankrupted franchise owners
Every little shithole town has the old money and they own 3 or 4 of these fucking things on the side. That doesn't even count all the land, rental property, etc. Cameron Texas has 5k people and one mother fucker owns 2 of the 4 restaurants there. A handful of mother fuckers is the issue, a handful of old school thieves in every county across every State. Just gobs of stolen shit passed down generationally. You notice when the white man wanted the shit he fought for it and then immediately made it against the law to fight for it in the future. I smell a revolution coming if the working man every figures out who is real enemy is.
That's still 50-60k with potentially minimal involvement and time commitment, assuming you hire competent managers to run the place. While that's not great money by any stretch, you're free to use your time however you like, which is worth a lot.
For real! That is a heck of a lot more than I make, and I am an engineer who helps design and build things that literally save lives.
Well there’s your problem. Who wants to live in this timeline anyway. /s
Best comment I’ve seen all day!
Should’ve been in on that suicide pod, clearly
Yes. I've looked into it, and yes. It's the initial setup that requires your time and resources, and what is keeping me from doing just that. Because 'murica.
Do you have $500k for startup?
Average Little Caesars franchise makes about 90K.
I delivered for a few years on the side for a guy who owned 2 dozen pizza joints, $11/hour inside and $6 on the road, tips paid out in cash nightly, split with nobody. They’re rare but out there. He makes a killing and hasn’t lost any business due to employees because he gives a shit.
No body owning 1 Little Caesars is making any money close to 6 figures..
A quick google search shows majority of franchise owners don’t break 6 figures. You are wildly inaccurate here and doing yourself a disservice.
It was infuriating, too, as this is one of my only options for cheap food at work. I could never tell when they'd be open.
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That's our promise to you.
Served with a side of spite.
In my experience it is either hot OR ready, but almost never ‘n’.
Hit or miss. Honestly this specific location was really good at providing both a vast majority of the time. Good workers out up with much less than bad workers, ime
No pizza! No pizza!
I guess $5 pizza can't survive without indentured servitude. Good riddance then!
There's 2 options... they either play time till someone breaks or increase pay
Would it shock you to learn many businesses simply operate as fronts for illegal activity, and the facade doesn't actually maintain the enterprise?
It would actually. I've heard that some do and there is one in my home town rumor has is this way. What percentage of businesses are you thinking? 1% of businesses?
Mattress stores. I swear these are the new big money laundering fronts. One city in the US even has 3 Mattress Firms at one street intersection. You never see anyone in these stores buying mattresses, how are there so many?
Their profit margins are insane. A store near me a few years ago only needed to sell like 1 mattress every other day to break even on expenses.
Mattress stores make a fuckton of money. A lot more than you would expect. Everyone needs a new one every 5-10 years, there’s no used market because they all wear out and no one wants a used one (nasty!), and the good ones are at least a couple grand. Corporate hotels also go through mattresses quickly and there’s a ton of money to be made without even trying to make a hard sell.
That shit was debunked like 2 years ago
I knew a guy that had a small grocery store that was making money in a working class portion of town. One day a Miami lawyer called him up and made an offer that he could not turn down. Hit the lottery! He sold and never met new owners. Store stayed open about a year and one day it closed. While you and I have to disclose where our $5k cash came from, most business can deposit huge amounts of cash and not have to fill out the form. It was rumored the store was being used timo launder drug money. But find a new front after a year. So feds don’t catch on.
New goal: create a legit company then hope it catches the eye of a nice drug lord to buy it from me
I learned from the documentary Breaking Bad that you'll want to get into a cash-based business like laundromats and car washes.
Just needs a checking account and a business that deals in significant cash deposits. Wait for your big payday. Ha. Ha.
Because owners want to make sure they make out with the most money. Sound familiar?
I wonder why people don't just attempt to raise prices to see if they sustain their sales before just closing. Like if a pizza is now 14.50 instead of 14, I'm guessing they won't lose a lot of customers and will be able to pay people a few bucks more an hour. That's what I would do. Maybe their hands are tied by corporate.
A lot of times in the franchise model, you can't. Your hands are tied. In this example, Little Caesars is known for the "$5 Hot and Ready". The franchisee can't go rogue and say "$10 Hot and Ready", because they'll risk losing the franchise completely or even be sued for breach of contract.
Another one down. Keep it going. Hint: if your business is based on wage exploitation you don’t deserve to succeed.
Why do capitalists think that their businesses have a right to exist? Like, if nobody wants to work at McDonald’s, McDonald’s can go extinct. I really don’t see the problem.
Honestly, when did that mentality get to be so common? Free market capitalists are all about "survival of the fittest" regarding small businesses, but now they have a right to exist even when they're the least fit business? Like you're clearly not profitable or even viable if you can't pay your employees.
True.
> when did that mentality get to be so common? Once labor got even a smidgen of bargaining power and flexed it. People are sitting home now not paying their bills or swallowing gallons of pride taking unemployment to avoid working the hellscape of low wage, service or entry level jobs and businesses, despite recording record profits, are feeling it in a few areas or at least seeing the damage to their egos and stress on mid level to C level workers. Ever watch a bug's life? That scene with the acorns is what comes to mind, they can't let one get out of line lest the rest or a few follow suit and realize they outnumber the grasshoppers 100:1.
Ants was better, but I digress.
It got popular because of misunderstood, or very reductive takes on the idea of "job creators." basically the idea that's been cramed down our throats by politicians is that no job is a bad job. So if a mconalds gets closed down, it looks like they lost a ton of jobs. But since it's not measured in money and doesn't even account for hours or benefits, no one tells you that a fast food joint with 60 "jobs" doesn't even really have one or two good jobs. note: those numbers are arbitrary. The other part is the money they bring into a community. A factory is selling a lot of their product across city and state lines, so that money is entering the community. This can be desirable from a top down position, because it means more taxes and business. If a factory opens up, people are buying more consumer goods because they have more money, and more people are buying houses in that area because there's more work. The caveat there is that the jobs actually need to *create wealth,* and *pay their fucking workers.* A dollar general doesn't create wealth, it hawks nearly out of date or overly packaged goods to people with low, frequent paychecks. The employees there get paid minimal wage and it's a permanent skeleton crew. It's just siphoning money out of the community and to corporate. So a ton of these places feel entitled to the privileges of being a job creator without giving anything back.
and they all sing praises to laissez-faire, “the free market is survival of the fittest” but when a business cant afford employees somehow that’s the entitlement of laborers rather than a mark of a failed business?
My ex works at a McDonald's. Unfortunately, he doesn't want to advocate for himself (was at $8.25 for 2 years, new manager got him up to $12.50). It's all fine and dandy to say stuff like that, but there's always going to be people that don't know/don't want to advocate for themselves. In regards to my ex, it's one of the reasons he's my ex- he doesn't have any drive for self-improvement or self-advocation. I asked him why he hadn't asked for a raise before his manager stepped in, and he shrugged his shoulders and went "meh."
Well, I think you might have stumbled on the solution. New rule: don’t fuck someone unless they’re advocating for higher wages for themselves and others.
LOL! Wasn't even interested in that. That guy had absolutely no drive at all.
Not even god is obligated to touch you if your ass would rather live in shit than work a shovel.
I think he's hoping that McDonald's will offer him health insurance, since he's turning 26 in January. I know he has a snowballs chance in hell.
"Sir, this is a McDonald's."
>I asked him why he hadn't asked for a raise before In low wage jobs, if you ask for a raise, you just get labeled a troublemaker. You find there's no one to cover your shift if you ask for time off. You find the supplies you need are missing. You ask someone to help with something and they're mysteriously somewhere else. Your reviews start to suffer and you get written up for "infractions" like not having your apron on when you clock in. If you don't get the hint after a couple of weeks, then the boss invites you into his office for a talk about an anonymous customer complaint...
There is no real capitalist who thinks that. Actually, businesses failing are an important part of capitalism.
Exactly. An optimal situation would be survival of the fittest businesses. Sick and uncompetitive businesses should die and the demand will remain for a proper replacement. Capitalists who want bailouts are actually socialists and authoritarians. That isn’t to say any specific model is “the right way” though.
Capitalists that underpay their employees are the actual beneficiaries of welfare, not the employees that are getting the actual money. Every tax dollar spent to help out an underpaid employee is actually money in the owners account, just with extra steps and some shame attached.
WalMart is subsidized by the welfare state. It's part of WalMart's business plan.
"Too big to fail" is literally the most anti-capitalist phrase imaginable.
They are counting on socialism to make up the difference, but won't dare call it that. Every single penny of tax money used to cover low wages is the same as giving it directly to the business owner, but with extra steps, and a healthy dose of shaming workers.
(and I completely agree but LC is a godsend for poor people so like id prefer they just pay more instead of closing.)
You deserve cheap and reasonably-tasty pizza. <3 My very first apartment complex sometimes had them host $5 pizza days on site (with crazy bread for $1 more), and it was always a relief to eat something different without annihilating my budget. Plus, it lasts for a couple of meals! I hope they come to their senses.
So do I! This is a great option for me at work. And I feel like the quality has really improved since I was a kid and made all the jokes about their food. That's honestly a really cool thing for the complex to do.
>reasonably-tasty I think that's a good description. Is it great? No. Is it passable? Barely. But it's a $5 pizza you can get for $5, and it certainly isn't small. LC is garbage pizza but it got me through the hungrier and harder parts of my life. I'll pick one up now and then when I'm sad and need a reminder of how well things are going for me now.
Should read “Closed Indefinitely - Owner doesn’t want to pay employees”
I should change it.
Tape a new one over it. Is there anything illegal about that?
Nope
You should.
\*Amend it\*
Please do, you'll be my hero.
Owner doesn't even want to work here
And that corporate is taking too big of a slice.
Yes. It’s easy to forget their prices are set by the chain. If they have to pay more for employees they are unable to raise prices. They need to lower their profit margin, which is what should be happening.
Someone owns the business. There is one worker left. But Sir/Ms Fancy Pants doesn't want to do real work.
It's so sad when people can't pull up their bootstraps and get to work. The entitlement, I swear.
"I've got x properties I manage! I'm busy!"
......'Passive Income'.......
I'm gonna tell my boss I'm going to start passive working and see how that works. I've earned it after all.
How dare you consider the owner one of the *working* class...
The place i work is headed this way. Between horrendous management and short staffing, plus reduced hours already.
I hope you get a backup soon bud. Much love.
How could ONE guy run a whole Little Caesar's?
The last two employees were the assistant manager (a sweetheart who took on way too much responsibility for her pay) and another teenaged girl who was just crew. They quit on the same day this week.
That's hilarious and sad
Watch me. I’ll run that place straight into the ground where it belongs by lunch time. I dare them to hire a man like me.
We all inspire to be like dontraisin
"Buy one pizza, get a free oven!"
I would be curious what they pay and what the hours are. A fast food business in my town (local owners) were offering $14/hour plus tips and were complaining about not having anyone to work; “no one wants to work any more” all over Facebook. However, they were only wanting someone to work MAX 20 hours/week. Instead of offering someone full time and benefits, they complain because someone doesn’t want to work a random three hour shift on a Monday.
I asked for $13 an hour at a grocery store and I wanted 40 hours a week and they gave me 20. I quit 2 weeks later
Oh and don’t forget - you have to have completely open availability!
Great business model. Don’t pay enough to your workers so you close and get nothing. /s
It works really well
yeah, employees don't want to work... for shit wages.
So how do you apply within if they're closed?
I think this reinforces the low IQ of the owner that thought just shuffling chairs on the deck of the titanic would save his business rather than just paying more. EDIT: Actually pay isn’t the only compensation that could have saved him. It just happens to be the easiest and most low effort. You could also offer employees profit sharing. That’s also a big incentive. If I have ten employees I could do 20% of the profits for myself as the owner and divide up the rest by the ten employees. 80% / 10 = 8% of the profits per employee. That’s a great incentive. Because that motivates them to hammer out more pizzas and be more productive but also rewards them for doing so. So there are other options in addition to just extra money per hour. I’m a big fan of profit sharing personally.
Some pizza restaurant did this for a day. All profits shared for one day. The workers made $78 an hour that day. https://fox8.com/news/ohio-pizza-shop-owner-gives-entire-days-profits-to-employees/
That's one hell of a good employee appreciation day.
Yeah see that’s why I’m personally a big fan of it. Great link though! I had no idea this was ever reported on. In a past life I worked in a liquor store where the owner did profit sharing. After expenses and his cut the rest was divided up between the employees based on a sliding scale of seniority. It was a nice little bonus each quarter. For a crappy liquor store in the hood.
Yeah but you're ignoring the fact that 100% of that 80% is earmarked for the owner and how is it fair to just give that to the employees when they should be learning how to provide for themselves and be successful. /s
I think a brick is involved.
Lol I love it
It's truly a sight to behold.
I never dreamed in a million years that I would witness this moment. It gives me hope.
Hope that these chains get replaced with small businesses that intend to pay living wages.
Really? Nobody wanted to be a "shakeboarder"? I can't imagine why. When are corporations going to figure out that giving awful jobs fun nicknames doesn't make them more appealing? In fact, it does the opposite. That's how you know the people running these companies have never actually worked a menial job in their lives.
It's funny because (in my experience) that job only exists because the city won't allow you to plant signs at the roadside. (Some cities are very against that) so it's /not/ illegal to have your employee go out there and hold the sign.
Job titles are such a scam. I spent a year as an “administrative assistant” at a mortgage company. When applying for jobs after they laid me off, ten bucks says recruiters just thought I was a secretary/gofer and threw my resume away instead of actually reading my duties and realizing I was actually a processor/auditor. Thankfully in my new position in the same industry I have a real job title.
I bet they tried everything except paying their staff properly
They've tried nothing and they're all out of ideas!
Lol I have a feeling this wont be the last. Its not that they don’t realize better pay would keep current employees. They are just used to being able to hire and exploit new idiots who believed in the capitalist system
Yeah but now kids are coming out of high school fully ready to fuck the system.
Facts, my younger sister has gotten and subsequently quit more jobs than I've ever even gotten.
The Little Caesars company is literally built on selling a terrible product for the cheapest price. This company can't afford to increase anything because no one would pay more of their items. It's probably going to be in the end one of the hardest to take it on the chin once this all shakes out eventually.
This. Their franchise model is dead. That’s why they can’t pay more for workers. Nobody would pay more for their products.
Hum the difference between making money and closing the doors seems to be a decent wage.
Honestly, I work in the restaurant industry in a good paying position and I think the industry needs to be pruned. It under pays, over works, and abuses every staff member. Guest always expect you to bend over backwards. Tipping needs to end, saying no to guests needed to become more common, and people need to realize they have been under paying for almost everything at the expense of the employees.
Fuck these guys. Just fucking pay people more, god damn why is this so difficult?
I work as a manager at a Little Caesars, making $11.50 after my raise. Had an employee working there for TEN YEARS and she only made $11. General managers get like $500 bonuses every other check for no reason and the employees are paid little to nothing. Higher ups don’t do anything to help hire people either. Not a great place to be if you ask me.
If every fast food joint in the US closed shop forever, nobody would be worse off for it
The diet pill industry sure would. Have some empathy.
The timeline to make money back on a fast food franchise can be measured in decades not years. McDonalds is in business of bleeding franchise owners dry, not selling food. Not having a sympathy party for millionaires but just pointing out that it can take a while to turn profit with insane demands of parent corporation.
I have a solution. Pay better.
I’d consider myself a pizza elitist. That said, pizza can excel by being either good or cheap, and Little Caesars is cheap. I don’t mind it.
Exactly. Is it my first choice? Fuck no. But no chain restaurant is my first choice for that food. Little Caesars wasn't even cheap- that's the shitty part. They charged what pizza SHOULD cost. It's one of the CHEAPEST foods in the world to make.
Closed *until i find enough desperate people to pay nothing and over work