The Economy

With interest rates near zero, lending has been very friendly for small entrepreneurs such as restaurant operators. But the financial environment is prone to change. People living paycheck to paycheck want a piece of the action. Restaurants are inherently vulnerable to that.

I live near Madison, Wis, which has become a mini-startup mecca. But its startups don't rely on cheap workforce. As a result it's the most prosperous city in the state. If you poop in a bag to test for colon cancer, the specimen comes to Madtown. The poop testers aren't working for tips.

 

I've seen threads there from time to time, linked from other subs. They sync up somewhat with anecdotes I've seen shared on FB. I'm in my late 30s, and a bunch of my friends still involved in things like bartending and the restaurant industry were pretty much laid off or shitcanned during the pandemic. Forced to adapt and to find new jobs, most of them did - The skills transferred to sales and marketing jobs, to working at breweries, to health care.

 

Don’t forget that we sharply curtailed the inflow of immigrants in recent years, and Biden hasn’t exactly been rushing to turn on the tap.

 

Wrote a story yesterday about an IEP - an Intermodal Equipment Provider -- namely, a container chassis pool that supplies chassis to ports and terminals from Virginia to Texas, buying a chassis manufacturer, to ensure a steady supply for their customers.

That would be like United buying Boeing, has never happened in the intermodal industry.

 

Or buying back, since United had to spin off Boeing under FDR.

 

Saying the quiet part out loud

Port of Los Angeles' Gene Seroka Sees Supply Chain Snarls Lasting to End-2022

 

It's not just a bunch of young don't wanna work whiners, either. Lots of stories from people who put in years on the job. When new people were being hired in at what they make after five years with the company, they ask for a raise, get told that talking to other employees about pay is a violation of company policy and let go for some made up reason shortly after. Same sorts of stories from lower to mid-management types. You'd really have to scan it a bit to start to take in the trends. You also get stories from people who left or were forced out, made a change, and radically improved both their wages and work life.

 

Bartenders seem to do well in so many other jobs later in life. There’s not much that’s going to get thrown at you in a job that a bartender didn’t deal with on a Saturday night.

 

I scooped up favorite local bartender (and a recruiting check) weeks before Covid became a thing here.

Guy had an art degree and we were hiring folks to make 2D assets for basically video games.

Couple months ago I had to tell him “hey man you’re up against the vacation cap. Take some days,” and he was like, “Oops! Never had paid vacation days before.”

 

Update on the book I ordered for my brother's Christmas present on Nov. 29, which was supposed to arrive Dec. 3:

YOUR PACKAGE MAY BE LOST.

Fuck Amazon.

 

I can catch a glimpse of the Port of Hueneme from the home office I'm sitting at right now (humblebrag) and every Wednesday like clockwork the same transport carrying new cars arrives, and every Friday night it leaves. Other than a couple of rando Navy ships, that's pretty much the only big ships I see each week, although I understand something like 90% of the nation's banana supply comes through that port, but I can't really see the Dole facility from my location. But in the last month or so, there's been one or two container ships a day. Turns out the Navy has given over access to its big dock to allow container ships in. They are not Panamax, but smaller because the port is not deep. Every little bit helps I suppose.

 

Who the fuck buys books from Amazon? I mean, what the hell do they know about that?