Lyman Mag 20 with Loose Internal Connection

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
that spec thing is true for sure.
you pretty much have to specify 'or better' in big words right up front, and then have some one standing there at every point to make sure.
it ain't just the chinese though.

back when i was screen printing the owners decided they could do better with discount shirts from a plant they invested in down in old mehico.
we got stuff stretched out diagonally, one sleeve smaller than the other, collars sewed on inside out, and most of the time about half the amount of the order placed made it to the warehouse.
this put the two brothers in a tough spot cause they owned most of the factory and were getting screwed by themselves.
to make matters worse it was coming into busy season where the big national orders were coming in and the 4th. shift was due to be ramped up to meet the demand.
what do ya do?
well you close down the plant ripping you off at every chance and go back to a reputable company with your hat in your hand, your check book to pay the higher prices that sent you down the other path to begin with, and a bottle of catsup to help the crow go down easier.
plus now you gotta splain to your employees why you froze their pay increases for the last year, and the next one while you figure out how to get back on an even keel again.
Yes, the joys of capitalism! Biggest victims of this syndrome are starting out restaurants. Start out with good quality ingredients for three months, then buy the institutional food from the prison run. Three more months and they can't figure out where everyone went.

You can not fix greed.
 

Petrol & Powder

Well-Known Member
The failure rate of new of small businesses is higher with restaurants than just about any other type of business. And it’s usually not the quality of the food that destroys them. Food is actually one of the smaller expenses in a restaurant operation. Payroll is huge, rent or mortgage is huge, start-up cost such as equipment & furniture are huge.

I’ve talked to several restaurant owners, including some that were successful, and management is where you make or break it. Staffing and managers are key. Food really doesn’t cost much; ....wages, insurance and business debt are where you bleed money.

The ones that make it, told me that the key was keeping costs down, finding good employees, retaining good employees and preventing employee theft.

The food service industry has some good folks working in it but it also has a large portion of convicts, drug users and thieves. There’s a reason the owners put a camera directly over the cash register and isn’t the customers they are watching!
 
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RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
P&P, you may be right, but in my town two Chinese and three Mexican places went down for making cheap food once they got started. And this was back when minimum wage was $7 an hour and not our new $18 to work the window at McD's.
 

Petrol & Powder

Well-Known Member
While poor quality food will reduce the number of customers and therefore decrease revenue; buying poor quality food is often a reaction to other losses. Poor management and theft are the leading causes of failure. Going cheap on the food is often a reaction to insufficient profit, not a greedy motivation to increase profit. Restaurant owners don't intentionally drive customers away out of greed.

There are some good people in the food service industry and at the profitable places you will often see the same good employees there for years. But the food service industry also has a lot of criminals. If there is a burglary at a restaurant there's about a 75% chance an employee or ex-employee was involved. If the alarm was accidentally left unarmed or a hidden safe breached (and often damaged to make it look like they didn't have the combination) that percentage goes to nearly 100%.
If alcohol sales don't match alcohol inventories, the staff is giving away drinks or drinking it themselves.
If cash in the drawer is constantly short, it isn’t a math error.

It's a low margin business and it doesn't take much loss before you start bleeding money and looking for ways to survive, including buying cheap food.
 
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