I own a hospitality business with about 12 employees , have 10 workers that have been with me for 2-3 years but had trouble finding any employees for about 3 months and finally got lucky and filled out my team . I pay more then others and even offered bonus for a 3 month contract but still had a lot of trouble finding anyone

Now IÂ’m facing another problem with supply shortages and price increases . For example most of the prices of my meats and supplies has basically doubled along with the fact that many items are not available . Basically had no choice but to recently bump up our prices and pass some of it on to the customers .

I also own a tax practice and 60% of my clients are voluntarily on employment. Even the ones that said they went back to work gave up on working after realizing they can make the same amount staying at home .

I get the idea that businesses should pay more to attract more workers but even if you calculate 40 hours at 20$ an hour which comes to 800$ which is Probably 600 after taxes opposed to 500$ in unemployment between state and pandemic relief

And what small business can really increase paying their employees by about 50-60% along with the fact that the cost of goods aside from vegetables has basically doubled

I personally think we re all doomed if unemployment benefits continue past September especially with this delta variant looming

I canÂ’t imagine Congress extending these unemployment benefits , itÂ’s just a dominoe effect that will really drive prices through the roof and really crush the working middle class

I assume Covid would be an issue that less legal international workers are available to fill those skill shortages jobs.

In before the supply chains catch up and meat prices drop and you 'bump down' your prices as a favor to your loyal customers.

What parallel universe are you living in? Businesses raise and lower prices all the time, based on a variety of factors.

Please post when you return to this universe.

Have a good night (if they have "night" in your universe, that is).

I think his point was OP is just bitching and moaning about reality rather than just dealing with it like everyone else does, and business owners inherently have to regardless...

OP sounds a lot like Mason Malmuth when he was whining about Obama

The simple fact is, no matter what gov't does, you either adapt or die

People seem to be all about meritocracy until they're the ones on the chopping block. Not that I'm surprised...The natural inclination for self preservation is within all of us. Seems most would rather lie, cheat, and steal to stay viable than admit incompetence or fault and evaporate, as that is the hallmark of capitalism

Can’t believe people aren’t lining up for 600 take home when the cost of goods has doubled. Maybe offer to let them sleep on the floor?

Seriously though what would be your break even wage?

I agree with most of what you said, especially the bolded.

The city of Long Beach (California) passed a "Hero Pay" law several months ago that temporarily raised the minimum wage for workers in certain industries by I think $3. Kroger Foods responded by permanently shutting down several of their stores in that city.

If I raise my prices and my customers keep buying form me, they're never going down again. (econ 101)

When you run a business you aren't on a salary, you make your money in a variety of ways and some years are better than others.

But accounting for expenses is just a normal problem you have to solve every day. As you point out, prices go up and prices go down. Sometimes your cat licks your palm sometimes it bites it. Same cat, different day.

So Kroger didn't want to make money ?

Seems kind of dumb. But they're not required to operate their stores. Someone will fill the business need if it's there.

Well said.

Grocery stores have a very thin profit margin. I suspect that Kroger closed stores that were already not doing well, and that the impending increased salary burden just made the decision to close easier.

Unrelated to Hero Pay, several Stater Bros. shut down in Orange County. The good news is that no employees were laid off, as they were transferred to other stores.

Yeah, I hear they do have a thin margin.

But I'm not sure I'm convinced that it's not possible to run a grocery store in CA.
Time will tell. And I assume if a store is facing going under prices would need to be raised. And all stores are in the same boat in the same market so, honestly, I don't get it.

Businesses come and businesses go. The books aren't for us to see. lol

Who said that it's not possible to run a grocery store in CA? There are a multitude of successful grocery stores in CA. I have a good friend who works at a Stater Bros.

It's not always about "no profit" or "profit", sometimes it is about "less profit" and "more profit". When you have finite administrative or logistical resources or limits to how fast you can grow, you might want to restructure to maximize your gain.

As for replies to the OP and on costs hurting business, this can of course happen and it is not always possible to work around. Businesses close for a reason, and OP's woes should not be underestimated.

+1

+1

Fair enough.

I wasn't responding to the OP personally, just frustrated that so many Americans whine about the government taking care of people who need to be helped.

I always respect small business owners as it's a hard job. I didn't mean to wish any ill on him for sure.

Home Depot had no problem selling 2x4s for $10, yet they're back down to $6.

Maybe RFlushDiamonds should let them in on the secret that they're missing out on profits.

There was a video I saw before the pandemic about a small grocery store in California that was saving the planet by offering all of their products in bulk bins and letting people take exactly what they wanted and allowing them to bring in their own containers. It was super woke and got a lot of buzz. If I remember correctly, they were selling dry pasta for like $12/lb.

I wonder how that place is doing now.

No offense taken , I’m just concerned about the future that’s all

The post wasn’t about whining as a business owner , Ive certainly adapted in the past few months by raising wages and giving bonuses etc to attract workers and keep who I have

I was just stating the fact of what I was seeing as a business owner and also as a consumer

Like I go to Vegas every year , last month I waited 3 hours in line at a hertz rental place to rent a car , they had 2 people helping 100s of customers . 3 years ago they would have 6 people working at a minimum. Should hertz adapt? I saw a sign outside that it was offering bonuses and competitive pay. Maybe that is why the cost of car rentals is 3X what it normally used to be ?

Food and construction material is basically 2 x what it was pre pandemic levels , I’m told things will go back to better once unemployment ends but we will see if they

gas and dry goods are up as well because of what I think is a labor shortage

How is a teacher that used to barely get by on a fixed salary that increases at 2-4% supposed to survive when the cost of living goes up by X%

Untaxed UBI of $600 a week for everyone (permanent residents and citizens, and probably some other resident groups like refugees) over 18 sounds good.

It's just like your OP said. People can make $20/hr on the couch. Why come to work?

Last week we had a crew go pressure wash some decks at a few of our rentals to get them prepped for paint. Our guy went to buy the paint and was told by Sherwin Williams the stuff we want was on backorder with no delivery date in sight. In going on 10 years now in the property business, I don't think I've ever seen something as common as that deck paint on back order. It never even occurred to us to check before starting the pressure washing. Sorry, tenants. We needed some Class A FRP for a project. I called Friday to get some coming and was told by the wallboard company that pretty much anything plastic has a crazy lead time.

Ordered a custom replacement window for a tenant back in April. Normal 3 week lead time and it still hasn't arrived. They're upset but I've done my part. Maybe don't break your window next time.

Our remodeling arm has had to issue all sorts of $0 change orders for time due to material delays. It's embarrassing and makes us look incompetent, but this is just unprecedented.

I don't know how much of this is supply chain with product just sitting in ports and how much is factories suffering massive labor shortages.

I'm not smart enough to understand the full detail of how an economy functions, but as long as the government prints enough money to make it more profitable to sit on a couch than go to work, there's no end in sight.

Technically this is what the socialists wanted all along. Stay at home practicing their watercolors and just have the bare necessities covered by the government. Well we're living it, but eventually someone is going to have to make good on all this government handout money.

Or I suppose we can just use our fancy airplanes and take what we need by force.

$950 a month plus healthcare would be fine. Individual states could choose to supplement the Federal UBI if they wanted.

You're just making this up as a reason. Labor force participation is down about 1% from the average of Trump's pre covid years. It went down about 3% from before the great recession to pre covid when there was no enhanced unemployment benefits. It's just not believable that such a small difference is noticeable and caused by what you say as opposed to stock market highs, Trump tax cut, 100% of boomers finally hitting retirement age etc.

Sounds close to Canada .
You know the communist country lot of Republican love to call it lol .
Welcome to the communist world lagtight .

unemployment is a flawed system and the statistics are misleading . I have a tax practice and I had first hand experience at how easy it was to receive unemployment. They made a bit more difficult now with The verification process but if you have an Id and social you qualify .
People that never ever worked or entered work force are eligible for unemployment.
So if we have someone working at a meat factory and their significant others and family members now collect unemployment, that person can either quit or work half the hours .

And to add other examples for the past 2 months we re only receiving 20-30% of the meats we order ? Maybe we should start breeding chickens and sheep to adapt

Maybe we can aim for a world where people don't have to work just because they are desperate for money.

Make it worth their while.