[jyl]

Restaurants are generally having a hard time in my city, but it isn’t uniform at all.

There still seem to be plenty of people going out to eat, maybe they are ordering a bit less or not having the second cocktail. What is really hurting is the business district eatery that depended on office workers and business lunches, thanks to working from home and high prices/tighter budgets. Overall, people are not spending much less on eating out but it isn’t growing like it was - retail sales data is consistent with that - and that slowdown is enough to push some places over the edge.

But everyone is hurting on the costs and expenses side! My friend does bookkeeping for many restaurants in town, she says practically every one is struggling to hold profits up.

I think it will get worse. I think the revenue side is going to get worse.