The employment crisis in the hospitality sector.

More times than often customers arrive at premises , of course look at menus, prices etc , it's not just as simple has analysing menu prices , being horrified and getting up to leave , some will have booked an occasion, some will have travelled to an establishment, some may have few options and may have already purchased drinks etc. Of course people can vote with their feet but not always possible.

I recall I had a restaurant in Dingle, over 20 years ago. I was fascinated, even back then at Tourists browsing menu's throughout the day , I initially thought , maybe looking for choice, preference for a particular type of food etc , Not at all,, I discovered, they were primarily checking prices . This was at a time you had 3 choices in Dingle

Fish and Chips

Crap food in grotty tourist type restaurants

Off the scale Fine Dining prices.

My solution and it caused uproar at the time. The introduction of the first Early Bird Menu in Dingle. The Goal to Drive business 5 - 7 by offering a simplified menu with value for money the Key.

I went from a half full restaurant 5 -7 to a queue out the door and bookings 6 months in advance during peak times.

Other restaurants caught on in time but even the Fine Dining establishments tried to compete , the difference, my 3 course price was the same as some starters in these restaurants. I retained a fine dining Bistro style menu from 7 - 10 but always watched prices.

I offered excellent Food at a reasonable price and constantly good service. Developed a successful business by retaining an excellent small team , controlling costs (I was chef Proprietor) and understanding my customers and did not Gouge. My margin was lower 5 -7 but made up through wine sales and enhanced my 7 - 10pm business through reputation and whilst later menu more expensive, so to was choice on offer , I was never greedy , Just practical.

Repeat Business is Better than No Business and primarily achieved by consistency and Well trained and cared for staff . These simple concepts sadly lost in the sector over the past 20 years unfortunately.

funnily enough, you d probably find most industries have all sorts of state supports, without which, simply wouldnt be, many large corporations simply wouldnt exist without these state supports, and this has always been the case, long before covid turned up!

once again, without these state supports, many of these businesses wouldnt be viable. i worked for a large corporation that never made a profit!

Well done Wanderer. You sound like you know what you're talking about.

Would you agree that filling table and encouraging more covers with lower prices is more profitable than having a half empty place but with sky high prices?

Your 100% correct , when I ran Kitchens I ran them essentially like an office and the KP was essentially my office manager. They not only deal with cleaning but stores, Deliveries and in many cases assist with basic food preparation, indeed many famous Chefs started their careers as KP's .

Essentially the complaint is that there isn't enough cheap labour rather than a shortage of staff.

In someways it's the ideal place to start. You learn from the bottom up, work your way up through the brigade incrementally, and get a solid foundation. I've worked with a lot of great chefs who started this way.

On the flipside of that you have qualified chefs coming in after 1 - 3 years of college, that never did any proper placement and end up really struggling. Becoming a legitimate chef takes years of hands on experience.

Absolutely correct , there's also these fancy and expensive private schools who turn out people who'd struggle to make fairy cakes let alone work in a seriously tough and high pressure environment, I've had a few Tears in my time 😁

I trained in Rockwell Hotel School, was once part of Rockwell College and considered in its time to one of the best Chef Training College in Europe, there was a time your a CV without mention of Rockwell, went straight in the Bin and some establishments would only hire Chefs trained in Rockwell. Many ex students went on to manage very famous Hotel and restaurant Kitchens around the world.

Qualifications aside. Most jobs will hire people with no experience in the role. If you think only hospitality hire staff with no experience you're poorly informed.

Experience usually means a job well done. Poor waiters are like poor doctors. Your life may not depend on the waiter but your experience will be bad with both services.

Most chef's attend college and have qualifications. Culinary arts is a 4 year course - do you not realise that. Often they work for free while going to college to gain experience.

Agree that waitresses/kps don't have qualifications but most chef's have qualifications.

SF are pro-business so your point is incorrect.

Poor service is poor service, your opinion of the profession is immaterial.

Would you agree that the issue is with the lack of cheap labour currently available? Part of the solution might be to offer better pay and t's and c's

Where did i say i saw the prices before i paid. So you are advocating for businness's ripping off people as long as its advertised? I dont think its as simplisitic as you want to make out. Plenty of locations that might not have a lot of choice so you are stuck paying what they want.

Are you self employed in hospitality or another businness which relies on hospitality?

From reading some of the real world experiences on here it seems zero hour contracts, minimum wage and staff getting treated like dogs are the order of the day. That couple with big profits its hard to have a shred of sympathy.

Where are you getting the "big profits" from?

Any hospitality places I know ( and I would be privy to their takings and costs) are working off very low margins.

Thought that was a tip for a horse for a minute.

Disappointed now. 😁

Several years ago, maybe 4-5 years ago, I was informed from a reliable source (an employee) that the gross profit margin on food in Hargadon's pub in Sligo town centre is 74%, with a hope/plan to move to 75%.

So if you buy a meal for 12.00, the food cost is 3.00.

The VAT must come out of the gross margin.

I expect places in Dublin and other cities are now on 80% GP on food.

Gross margin is a meaningless figure.

Do they have direct overheads in the calculation?