Thursday, February 26, 2015
Unintended consequences, or....
Wow, was I off the mark.
http://chiefexecutive.net/New-York-is-the-49th-Best-State-for-Business-2014
I've written about New York's lousy business climate before, and just finished a short post on how the State government chose New York City's drinking water over the needs of the Southern Tier. As mentioned, I agree with Albany's decision, as fracking cannot be done safely. Only when we have no choice but to access that source of natural gas should it be done. We're not even close to that point.
I also wrote a post about cutting corners and cost-saving is affecting the education industry, and added a small note about Chili's at the Palisades Mall uses tablets at each table to expedite payment, ordering, etc. There's been even more automation, with some restaurants allowing you to order online before you go, and your food will be ready right around the time to sit. I can't imagine this will up-sell appetizers, but it will make for a much more efficient dining experience.
This isn't the reason people eat out, at least as I was always told by my managers. People go to restaurants to be served; the food is almost secondary. You sit, order, chat with your date, people watch, flirt with the waitresses (wait, that's just me...), and someone cleans up when you leave. To reward good service, you leave a nice tip, and in deference to our hyper-connected times, a good review on Yelp. I suppose the ability to order online will be seen by some as a good thing, but I doubt I'd use it. Servers cost so little, I remarked in my prior post; why wouldn't a restaurant want to employ an army of them?
Well, waiters and bartenders and busboys were cheap. We earned a few bucks an hour to pay taxes on our declared tips, and maybe we had enough left over to get lunch. If you wanted more earnings, you had to be better at your job. The more tables you could handle, the better your section and shifts. When you mastered pouring a perfect pint of Guinness, complete with a shamrock in the foam, the more likely you were to work St. Patrick's Day and rake in cash with a shovel. You'd probably get a few phone numbers from Irish aux pairs as well. When I ran food at the Rainforest Cafe, I always bussed dirty dishes, dropped extra napkins, plates for rib bones, etc. These small extra steps made the other servers' jobs easier, earning everyone better tips. The lynchpin for all of this was that your paycheck was a joke. My hourly pay was $4.00 an hour, so I had great motivation to hustle like a fiend. Well, New York, in its infinitesimal wisdom, decided this wasn't good enough, or grossly unfair, or felt that it encouraged good working habits. All tipped employees, i.e. those hourly positions that were exempted from the federal minimum wage, are now paid a whopping $7 an hour.
Of course that seems nominal in the grand scheme of things, but it will hurt small mom and pop restaurants. In the oft-mentioned city of Binghamton, Scott said that the early bird dinner specials will disappear or the restaurants will simply close. Other places will be forced to let people go. The places that survive will continue to push online ordering and table reservations to increase volume where applicable, and somewhere down the line we will all pay more to eat out. I hate this policy, not because I don't want servers to make money, but because I feel it will cost jobs. Waiting tables was so important to my returning to New York, and if this policy was in place, would the job have been available? It's hard to say. At some point soon, I'll be sitting at a table and I'll have no choice but to order via a computer, and I will be deeply sad. There should be a young person taking that order, earning tips, learning her way in the world and planning to have fun when the shift was over. Eventually, it won't happen because the opportunity will be gone. What will she do then?
http://chiefexecutive.net/New-York-is-the-49th-Best-State-for-Business-2014
I've written about New York's lousy business climate before, and just finished a short post on how the State government chose New York City's drinking water over the needs of the Southern Tier. As mentioned, I agree with Albany's decision, as fracking cannot be done safely. Only when we have no choice but to access that source of natural gas should it be done. We're not even close to that point.
I also wrote a post about cutting corners and cost-saving is affecting the education industry, and added a small note about Chili's at the Palisades Mall uses tablets at each table to expedite payment, ordering, etc. There's been even more automation, with some restaurants allowing you to order online before you go, and your food will be ready right around the time to sit. I can't imagine this will up-sell appetizers, but it will make for a much more efficient dining experience.
This isn't the reason people eat out, at least as I was always told by my managers. People go to restaurants to be served; the food is almost secondary. You sit, order, chat with your date, people watch, flirt with the waitresses (wait, that's just me...), and someone cleans up when you leave. To reward good service, you leave a nice tip, and in deference to our hyper-connected times, a good review on Yelp. I suppose the ability to order online will be seen by some as a good thing, but I doubt I'd use it. Servers cost so little, I remarked in my prior post; why wouldn't a restaurant want to employ an army of them?
Well, waiters and bartenders and busboys were cheap. We earned a few bucks an hour to pay taxes on our declared tips, and maybe we had enough left over to get lunch. If you wanted more earnings, you had to be better at your job. The more tables you could handle, the better your section and shifts. When you mastered pouring a perfect pint of Guinness, complete with a shamrock in the foam, the more likely you were to work St. Patrick's Day and rake in cash with a shovel. You'd probably get a few phone numbers from Irish aux pairs as well. When I ran food at the Rainforest Cafe, I always bussed dirty dishes, dropped extra napkins, plates for rib bones, etc. These small extra steps made the other servers' jobs easier, earning everyone better tips. The lynchpin for all of this was that your paycheck was a joke. My hourly pay was $4.00 an hour, so I had great motivation to hustle like a fiend. Well, New York, in its infinitesimal wisdom, decided this wasn't good enough, or grossly unfair, or felt that it encouraged good working habits. All tipped employees, i.e. those hourly positions that were exempted from the federal minimum wage, are now paid a whopping $7 an hour.
Of course that seems nominal in the grand scheme of things, but it will hurt small mom and pop restaurants. In the oft-mentioned city of Binghamton, Scott said that the early bird dinner specials will disappear or the restaurants will simply close. Other places will be forced to let people go. The places that survive will continue to push online ordering and table reservations to increase volume where applicable, and somewhere down the line we will all pay more to eat out. I hate this policy, not because I don't want servers to make money, but because I feel it will cost jobs. Waiting tables was so important to my returning to New York, and if this policy was in place, would the job have been available? It's hard to say. At some point soon, I'll be sitting at a table and I'll have no choice but to order via a computer, and I will be deeply sad. There should be a young person taking that order, earning tips, learning her way in the world and planning to have fun when the shift was over. Eventually, it won't happen because the opportunity will be gone. What will she do then?
