Lobbying should be banned . This is just a legalized way to corrupt politicians and administration officials.

I've been a chef for 20 yrs. Covid was absolutely a huge shock to the industry, but we are 3-4 years POST lockdown.....the restaurants that are thriving made a pivot and kept on rolling, those that didn't are using it as an excuse. There's a lot of reasons why restaurants close, but these big mega chains like Chili's, Applebee's, On the Border, Red Lobster, tgi fridays, olive garden, etc have been on a steady decline for A LONG time. All of these big chains suffer from the EXACT same problem. They have a bean counter making decisions at the corporate level that's too far removed from operations, quality and service are never factored into decisions, just profits. You can only cut costs so far before your food and service goes to shit. The food and service just isn't good at ANY of these places. They are microwaving entrees, prepackaging entrees, making their sauces in a factory. Did you know you can wipe the grill marks OFF of a chilis chicken breast (it's not cooked on a grill, they're fake grill marks painted on the chicken). Restaurants that have been focusing on food quality and service have been thriving in the same economy these mega chains are failing, with the same food cost inflation, wage hikes etc. As for Uber eats/door dash etc, they've been stealing business from the local pizza joint and fast food. Before the 3rd party apps, the only choice for delivery was pizza or Chinese. It's been a huge boost for mom and pop places (though not without some headaches).

The lockdowns helped me realize I don't mind eating at home to be healthier and save money.

Tipping has become a big-time turn off nobody wants to be told how much of a tip to leave...

I'm visiting Southern California right now, and I'm angry. A very popular restaurant chain here, which every location was always for years packed and worth the wait, now looks like ghost locations. They are open, just empty. California's policies have done this destruction.

People aren't eating out because it cost so much plain and simple

C0v¡d was a pysop that a lot of people fell for....😢😢😢

First remove all medical commercials on tv.Then arrest the ceo behind the pharma cartel.

Magically, private equity buying up restaurants and turning them over to make short term profits, and forcing them bankruptcy, does not get mentioned. I wonder why…🤔

i stopped doing uber eats when a $11 burrito started costing $40 to get to my door. -Delivery fee -Admin fee -Operating fee -Taxes -Tip The peak of uber eats was during covid.

I can only speak for myself but I refuse to pay for a burger lunch and salad lunch for my wife and myself for $60 when it used to cost me $25 just a few years ago. Now we cook for ourselves for a fraction of that price and cook our way. It’s about value as much as not accepting the gouging that’s going on.

You’re not addressing the effect that social media has played in the destruction of restaurants. People don’t go out and socialize with friends anymore

pat - you missed the BIGGEST factors- Rent Prices doubles, car insurance doubles, new car price increases, Property taxes and the increase in single households.70% are now single in the range of 18 to 45 !! Not sharing rent will ruin your budget !!! No money for take ouT , beer or booze !! RESEARCH !!

Bad politics, bad life.

I can't believe that people are still willing to pay double for not fresh food. Laziness

pfzier mRNA= myocarditis

Tipping Culture is a reason my wife and I do not go to restaurants anymore. The expectation of a massive 15-25% tip on a burger combo at a steak house is more then enough to keep us away. Tipping has got out of hand especially since food prices have gone way up.

I quit when I realized all most chain restaurants do is order from Sysco or performance food. You can make the same quality food at your house

I've been eating home cooked. Haven't been out to a restaurant in over 10 years. They had a good run, rest in peace..

Everyone fails to mention executive pay that is beyond sky high, it has left earth’s orbit.

Im sad to see my local hardware store closing down! Family owned, great service...😢

Not COVID, local and state government lock down's did that!

Uber eats is such a rip off they upcharge and charger more for a large coke than going to that same restaurant people are stupid for paying that money

Keep it real a lot of these food places is trash! The food isn’t good anymore and a lot of these servers and waiters aren’t good but want good tips let’s be real

They’ve always charged way too much for very unhealthy food.

We simply can’t afford eating out. Prices has gone up 150% and more, 4% inflation to employees., 18-20% tip, 9% sale tax.

I don’t see this situation as dire at all. It’s great to see people cooking at home!

It's healthier to eat at home and it cost less !!!! Start paying off your debt and if you can, start saving money if possible. Grocery stores prices are high also . I was looking at Deli meat , it cost $13.99 per pound. I said Pass !!! I'll keep on fasting !!!

I stopped eating out after buying my house in 2008. I buy a couple of weeks worth of groceries at a time, so I'm kind of locked into eating those groceries so they don't go to waste. When covid hit I didn't have to change my routine much, except to wear a mask inside the store and do the "6ft distance dance".

I understand all of these financial woes of the restaurants, in Washington state they have to pay their waitresses I think $20 an hour, so how is a small restaurant supposed to cope with that? But, for my $16 for one plate of noodles in a Chinese restaurant I think they should be good! I think they should be well prepared and tasty and not taste like garbage, and this is a consistent problem that the restaurants have. They've raised their prices to keep up with inflation and wages, but the quality of ingredients has gone down and the cooking quality has gone in the basement, and that doesn't have anything to do with the economy! I don't know what the reason is, but I'm tired of dropping 40 or 50 for a very small evening out, and walking away thinking "that was terrible!"

Most of the problem downtown is the transients that come in the restaurant nobody wants to be around them so they stay home

You couldn't pay me enough to buy any KZfaqrs 'merch'

We all know hedgefunds destroyed Red Lobster

Joe Biden did that.

Anyone trustworthy enough to have strangers deliver their food is a naive fool.

Too expensive for families . Family of 4. I still eat great meals but I cook them at home .

I hate ordering just to see a tip % then get a look. For take out

I make 6 figures and cut my eating out money by more than 50%

I don't understand how Uber Eats increased revenue has much to do with restaurants going out of business. Uber doesn't make food, they deliver it from those restaurants that are now closing. Seems Uber Eats is what has been keeping those restaurants afloat.

Restaurants employ young people with little or no cooking abilities. Charge the customer plenty, pay the workers as little as possible and then cry about losing customers. Even the franchises, McD's, Taco stores, the burger chains all with prices being ridiculous. No sympathy from me. None.

41.9% of adults in the U.S. have obesity so less food might actually be a good thing.....

Went to Applebee's 2 years ago and sat there for almost 2 hours. They had 2 large racks of take out food sitting there. I told them they need to take better care of their sit down customers who buy drinks, and desserts, pay sales tax, and tip more. I told them I won't be back ever again, and have stuck to my word

The food isn’t as good as it used to be to be and the service is awful.

I don't like to tip, I don't like sales tax, eating out gives money to taxes, and I have to pay their salaries of witnesses. Why eat out?

Kevin couldn’t even explain what happened to his Millions from FTX… please spare me Kevin’s obvious remarks.

It cost $150 with no drinks plus. But then you have a service fee, cook fee, bus boy fee then you expected to tip wait staff on top of it. Done with it.

Upscale is the only sector of dining that is thriving. Especially if it involves a membership or some other form of exclusivity.

Tipping is also making dining exorbitantly overpriced. It also breeds some of the most ungrateful people! 👎

Most restaurants ask 18%-20% tips, some restaurants directly charge tips to the bills after tax. Who wants to pay??

I run two restaurants in Central KY, Uber eats went from emailing me quarterly or so to sell me on joining. Now they are straight up sending contracts on a weekly basis with reminders "don't forget to sign our docusign link". Not even sales anymore, they're panicking. Cold calling contracts into strangers emails with zero pitch. Dirty moves.

PBD all good points but you are missing a key point to all of this. Shrink the damn the government. Why is there a need to lobby? To gain competitive advantage through the courts or government. Why do we need government involved in our day to day lives? Get rid of lobbying will be free from bureaucrats that benefit from lobbying. In my opinion lobbying is legalized racketeering. Get rid of it!

The biggest profit in a restaurant is alcohol, and if everybody was sitting at home, not able to go to the restaurants, even though you can get Uber to bring you alcohol from that restaurant it’s not the same. There’s a very small profit margin in the food aspect of it

Never used Uber eats. None of us can afford to eat out anymore!!!!!

Many restaurants depended on Weekday sales from office commercial towers which are now empty due to remote work.

It’s the tipping. They need to just pay workers better and say bye bye to tipping with their overpriced plates.

In the Midwest , none shutting down here, but new ones opening up.

I know you guys do everything you can to protect business but you can't have this discussion without talking about private equity buying these companies and sucking them dry.

What a trend that got revealed hats off for the value created man

It's not just lobbying, y'all left out how much money big pharma pays to the FDA, the FDA is funded by big firm

I still don't understand how resturants uber eats and phram have anything to do?

No mention of the private equity firms sucking money right out of these places? Somebody doordashing mcdonalds isnt considering going into red lobster instead

Bidenenomonics

I can't help but wonder. At some point, maybe around 2010, we had a flood of restaurants hit the market. They can't all survive, too many franchises. And now that groceries are at your door when you arrive from work, home cooking is easier than ever.

Adam has been on fire with his comments! Keep killing it bro! I liked your comparison about different companies and adapting. Also, on a different video on how patriotism is taught and how we used to do the pledge of allegiance in class. I came an illegal immigrant and the hair on the back of my neck stood up when we did the pmedge of allegiance in school and I barely spoke english. I ended up signing up for the military and did 20yrs, I'm now retired and still to this day feel great pride in having served my country and if needed I would gladly give my life in its defence if it ever came down to it! Keep up the good work Adam!

If you order Uber eats your still ordering food from a restaurant restaurants are still profiting from Uber eats.

Why doesn't Dave just work the computer? Then he wouldn't have to do the "Go lower, go lower, go back, go back...." stuff

What about the whole tipping issue? Prices has gone up in restaurants as well as tip “expectation” now even at Applebees the default tip is expected 20-25 percent. People don’t want those high prices on top of adding a hefty to tip to a typical mid income family

Citizens United ruling by SCOTUS about 10 years ago needs to be overturned! This will put voters back in charge as the citizens the politicians need to impress while in office, not the massive big $$$ campaigns that most of our politicians now expect from corporate donors through their Super PACs.

People are gonna have to suck up the cost for restaurants offering 15+ minimum wages and the menu price hikes that go along with it unless these restaurants want high school only employee because the cost of living dictates we get jobs thar pay higher than 8 a hour. Which city where can you pay for gas, rent, utilities, groceries, car maintenance, pets etc on 8 a hour? Not where I live in rural Iowa. That's iowa! It inly gets worse the closer you are to a city and the further yiu go geographically towards the coasts. Our government for the last 30+ years have given more of a shit about themselves than the taxpayers. That's how we got to this point. It's both a red AND a blue problem for those really paying attention. We vote to give us the illusion that our voices are heard, they're not. Every four years the government pisses down our legs and tell us it's raining. Then to throw DEI and immigration on top if it. I've given up. We're screwed

Where is the merch made? I don't see the country of origin.

I can't believe it, so corporations don't just "create value"? They actually destroy it? Fascinating

Uber eats. People without jobs, delivering food to people without jobs

This makes me mad being an UberEats driver. They are turning these huge profits yet they can't pay us shit. $3 cancelled order fees. All that non sense. And they are generating that much money. Ridiculous.

Healthier to cook at home

Blackrocks buying the property and than renting it to the the supply chains.

I think it has very little to do with foot traffic and mainly to do with the fact that meals are up 30-40% from a few years ago and many people simply can't afford to eat out.

Record profits without a single employee actually doing the deliveries.

Lobbying needs to go

Tom as usual makes the best point

But their food is dull and uneventful now. Who wants to pay for that now?

Pat, i'm trying to locate the video where you talk about how many days of the year are dedicated to the LGBQTA++WB society. I remember it was 147 days of the year. Can you link that video please?

I think restaurants are suffering because the experience sucks, in lots of cases. I don't to pay $150 to take the family out AND get crappy food and poor service. I prefer Pericles, "Just because you're not interest in politics doesn't mean politics isn't interested in you".

Restaurants need to give 10% off for dine ins to get this back. Simple

Happy somebody is speaking out about this because I know the restaurants are in dire straits and during covid there are so many restaurants that have to go out of business

Stop expecting others to take care of you. Prepare your own food.

o’leary killin it lately

People eat local not Corporate restaurants. This is great. Local is the way to go.

Applebee's got bought out by Blackrock as did about 20 Major Food Chains

I love kevin O learn

When will we start blaming corporate greed for their own demise? Lower those prices and people will come back.

The biggest fast food chain that doesn't serve food is door dash.

My family use to get two pizzas delivered for $30. Pizza place switched to door dash instead of having their own delivery and one pizza delivered is now $30. We stopped ordering pizza. I make a pizza for the family once a week on our gas grill. I don’t doubt that pizza place has lost volume.

Increase in min wage should also b addressed

"It’s easy to criticize me, but they’re really criticizing science because I represent science." - Dr. Anthony Fauci

I’m in SW Missouri and for as I can see, the restaurants are packed

Great job by Rob...always a great team...great video...thanks!

Save the climate crazy planet and live in 15 min cities. Thanks and vote conservative

I'm a chef with 30 years experience and the reality is your average person can't afford to pay a person to cook and clean for them. It's a absolute luxury. Let me breakdown the numbers for you. You spend 100 dollars in a restaurant Before you start 20% has gone to tax Then the cost of the food if there is 0 waste with no mistakes is 35% Then 15 % goes to to rent Another 20% goes to pay staff 90,% gone Now add Gas Elec Water Services for your point of sale system Hygiene service for pest control Now add guest amenities, soap in the bathroom, 3ply toilet paper,napkins on your table, flowers, candles, condiments, Then someone to come remove ur rubbish Upkeep of your property Maintenance of ur fridges and equipment I hate to say it because this is my business but most people can't afford to eat out Oh and remember all these staff are on minimum wage Love ur show

I worked in restaurants as a young man as did my wife in her teens, and we value that experience today, greatly (me in my 60s, she in her 50s). The loss of 200,000 restaurants we see all around us, and on average, if there were ten employees per location, that’s 2,000,000 jobs!!! And prices are going up, up, up at the places still open. This really is a gut punch to America!

Private Equity has a factor in these closings.