Quote:Thanks, Drifter.

 

I still don't see where that answers the question but I appreciate the article.  It sounds like an interesting place.

 

If it was that busy as the article makes it out to be, why not try and raise prices as a last resort before just shutting the doors?  I'm not trying to judge and can only go by the information I've seen here but it seems like poor business choices.

 

Most restaurants don't make it beyond 5 years.  It's a shame about this one.  Sounds like they tried, but couldn't make it for whatever reason.  I'm no sure I buy the rent excuse though, to be honest.  The first thing that a restaurant owner must do is figure out the break even point and strive to hit it.  He should have known how to cost account for the fixed costs to reach an achievable break-even cost point for the meals he was selling.  It's a shame he didn't have a better business advisor and taken some accounting/business classes.  

 

On the bright side, I'm sure he set up the business as an LLC and thus the closing of this enterprise can be used as a learning experience for his next project which hopefully will go better than this one.

 

The concept of the what the free market can or cannot handle is a complicated one.  But the first thing a business owner must figure out is what his fixed costs are and price his products accordingly.  Also, there's alot to be said about marketing (adverstising), I'm sure investing in more advertising might have helped.  Also, they were only in business 18 months.  I'm wondering if they start up money they had was not enough to really get the business going.  Lastly, after reading the comments by some of the readers of the newspaper, I really do think that they were first time restauranteers...  Again, if they created an LLC and the liabilities were limited only to the assets of the business that went bankrupt, they may be able to try again---  After hopefully learning some hard lessons.

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