2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: PEOPLE ARE BOYCOTTING CHICKENHAWK-FIL-A, APPLEBEE'S AND PAPA JOHN'S. [View all]adieu
(1,009 posts)we have about 4000 licensed eateries from big to small. Very few of them are corporate chains like Applebees and such (and if they're here, they're relegated away from the downtown, northeast part of the city; they're situated closer to Daly City at Stonestown). It behooves a city to foster its indigenous cuisine. The planning department should definitely have a moratorium on big-box corporate dining options, as well as discount retail stores (I'm looking at ya, Wal*Mart).
Yes, there will be more failures because (a) restaurants are tough businesses to succeed in and (b) mom-and-pop restaurant owners are not necessarily smart business people. But over time, the city will develop its own identity for food. The succeeding restaurants will create imitations and those will compete with the top, forcing both to innovate and become better restaurants. They don't succeed by having a big bankroll to just outlast the mom-and-pops. The corporate ones just come in, price their stuff lower than the existing competition and sit and wait until those restaurants can succeed anymore. All it takes is about two or three months of below-average revenue to kill a restaurant. Just another form of vulture capitalism.