Disaster response in the US is completely driven by these kinds of community-oriented actions by private individuals and companies, and it has a long history of being highly effective.
They're doing it because it feels good to help people.
And because rerouting truckloads of supplies effectively at 2 AM means someone in the affected area will be able get to their nearest store and get the things they need.
I'm not sure why the comments here are so !%^&ing jaded, but sometimes you do the right thing... simply because it's right.
Does WH pay employees who can't show so they can still cover their bills?
Is it ethical to pay someone $7/hour (the average wage of a WH employee) and then ask them if they would volunteer to travel to work in a hurricane?
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Waffle-House/salaries
But really, if the employee was making $11.25/hour, would that somehow make it more ethical? $22k/year is still borderline impoverished for a 3 person household: https://www.thebalance.com/federal-poverty-level-definition-...
Here’s the kind of house that $35k BUYS you in Cleveland:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2840-E-122nd-St-Cleveland...
I can only assume the neighbourhood and/or it’s schools are atrocious, but damn.
The goal is to setup GSM-based emergency networks from scratch very quickly in severe disaster areas where infrastructure is disrupted by natural or other kinds of disasters.
For example: Nepal after the devastating earthquake in 2015.
They're flying in containers of GSM network equipment, diesel generators, fuel, along with technical people to get things going. Then they'll hand out SIMs/phones to emergency workers ASAP in order to empower logistics in a disaster zone.
It's manned by (obviously still paid) volunteers out of their normal working force.
This is based from Sweden mostly, I think. I'd expect the usual foreign travel insurance thing, perhaps with an additional hostage negotiation insurance for particular regions.
...
Presumably neither of these would be needed for Waffle House employees from the US who travel to another US state?
For well-run companies these kinds of things are a win-win thing. The company gets more loyalty, the employees get more motivation and the "end-users" get help. Perhaps the Waffle House is just a well-run company?
Grunts are, the executive staff, directors, and share holders ain't doin' shit.
The customers are paying for it, if only in future higher prices.
Wipe that polish off your face before speaking bootlicker.
Forgive me for sounding cynical but I'm going to play Devil' Advocate and ask: Are they well run, or opportunistic?
In an area hit by disaster any mom & pops are likely going to be slower to reopen. They have to wait for the insurance company. They have to worry about the homes and family. Etc.
WH on the other hand can finance themselves while they wait for the insurance cheque. The out of town employees don't have local home and local family worries. Etc.
WH might be well run. But they might also simply be in the best position to rise to the top in disaster areas.
Translation: There's another way WE can look at this. I'm not taking sides. I don't care about the WH one way or another. If you have a problem with the idea(s) tabled then address those ideas. That's all.
Put another way: Don't shoot the messenger.
If you want to dispute WH's advantages over M&Ps in the context of disaster, please feel free to do so. Just keep in mind I don't own the truths listed.
It isn't cynical to claim they are being opportunistic as much as it is myopic. If you want all recovery efforts to be done by gloomy stoics who are clawing back at a lifestyle stolen from them by cruel nature while telling heartbreaking stories about how hard it is to rebuild ... that will miss the opportunity that the situation will be quickly and dispassionately sorted out by some faceless corporation exasperated that its profits are down.
People like to think of capitalism as some sort of siphon system moving comfort from poor to rich, but it is a very powerful stabilising force. If there was an economic equilibrium and a disaster breaks it, letting capitalism happen will restore most of the status quo extremely quickly.
Saying that that is opportunistic is simply framing a positive thing negatively. If people are happy to do something out of their own self interest that is better than them doing it out of a sense of charity; and much more sustainable.
Capitalism is also 100% merit-based and unauthoritarian. Nobody is forcing people to use Amazon or McDonalds or Walmart. You might be confusing it with socialism, which is authoritarian as hell and has no regard for merit...
Except for inherited wealth, government subsidies and large-business-friendly tax cuts, and regulatory capture (among many other examples)?
Even for people who believe in capitalism as a religion, that statement is a bit too much.
They "only" have about 2.1k locations in the US - one outlet per 163k people in the country. This doesn't seem to me like a "mom & pop"-killer. (Subways has 24k locations, as a point of comparison.)
If you'd like to discuss and/or address that, please do.
If they helped you during a disaster would it matter?
Impossible to know unless some WH employees actually weigh in.
...look for the helpers
Like what kind of waivers are people in these Jump Teams signing?