It used to be that one could go out to lunch with friends once a week or so. Going out to lunch was less expensive than going out to dinner, and one would always be home while it was still light outside. It is still cheaper to go out to lunch, but now going out to lunch costs what it used to cost to go out to dinner. What changed? Here in California we have been hit with a double-whammy
First, just as in the rest of the country, Biden’s inflation has raised the cost of everything. In the context of eating out, it is the rise in the cost of the food, as well as the rise in gas prices that has caused the cost of going to lunch to rise significantly (N.B. The food has to get from the supplier to the restaurant, and thus someone has to pay for these increased transportation costs,and the restaurant passes this cost on to the customer.)
However, here in California we are further punished because we have a Democrat legislature and a Democrat governor, we now have a $20 fast food minimum wage law. Anyone with an ounce of common sense could predict that the cost of going out to lunch or dinner would escalate.
For months, data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown job losses in our state’s fast food sector. Multiple surveys also found that fast food establishments across the state slashed workers’ hours, drastically increased prices, and even shuttered completely. The most recent report from the Berkeley Research Group shows the state lost over 10,000 jobs from June 2023 to June 2024.
So who wins here?
Not the restaurant employees, as the data shows that workers have suffered due to his law. No amount of spin will pull the wool over the eyes of employees who find themselves with less hours or out of work entirely.
Not the restaurants as many common folk can no longer go out to lunch, and certainly not out to dinner, and so many restaurants are being forced to shut down.
Not the hungry consumer who is forced to eat more at home and much less in a restaurant.
2/27/25