There's something to be said for a food or retail establishment that is able to staff up with a cohort of smart local kids. Not saying the service is better or that they'll work harder, but it's nice to hear witty banter from national merit semifinalists enjoying (and especially not enjoying) their after-school jobs.

> Looking back, if the store had more workers like myself and Dave, I bet we could have increased the sales 20-50%.

The fact that there are tens of thousands of restaurants not hiring workers like yourself or Dave to increase sales 20% to 50% means there must be something preventing that. Such as insufficient number of workers like yourself or Dave at the wages they can pay and also sell at a low enough price, or the inevitability of workers like yourself to leave for greener pastures, or maybe sales would not go up 20% to 50%.

Either way, the market data is very clear for some businesses that they aren’t able to necessarily differentiate themselves at scale to earn enough profit to offset the costs.

The better workers move on to better restaurants where pay-for-performance is somewhat implicit, like tips in restaurants. You want your highly tipped waiters because they are the salespeople of your restaurant, and their commissions are a measurement of that.

Right, but what if people cannot afford or do not want to pay the amount required for better restaurants with better staff 80% of the time?

That’s what the current business landscape looks like to me when I see the various restaurant options.

There were clear differences in drive-tru with up selling that makes a huge difference too.