Add Denny's to the list

[*censored*]

There are a few I won't go to, actually. Carl's Jr., Chick Fil-A, and Domino's. Papa John's is moving closer to that list every day.

I don't mind Denny's charging 5%; I'd rather pay a small amount more (and 50 cents on a $10 purchase is small enough) if it means keeping the employees able to keep working.

[MadMan1978]

mrv, i feel like i am taking crazy pills. Poor business decisions? Are you kidding me? What in the heck does GWB have to do with anything? I am seriously starting to question your ability to form logical conclusions. Is there a part of the math I posted above that you do not understand? i would be happy to explain it to you again.

If my restaurant nets $150,000 per year and I employ 50 people, Obamacare says to either (a) buy them all insurance (costing me $175K-$350K depending on the cost of the plan), or (b) pay the government $40,000. Faced with this decision, I can take my business that puts $150,000 in my pocket at the end of the year and (a) close it down, because the cost of the insurance will eat all of my profits, or (b) pay the government $40,000, or (c) fire enough people/cut hours to get my number of employees who work 30 or more hours a week under 50.

Faced with one of these three decisions, what should I do? Which choice is a "poor business decision"?

The only reason I have to face this choice is because of Obama.

The real business fact is if you have a restaurant that employees 50 and net only 150K a year...You have already failed in business....If you knew anything of restaurants you would already know that...

I live in Mass were we have had the Mandate for more then 4 years now. I havent heard of one Denny's or other business doing ANY of these measures to avoid health care mandate! that in it self making any point you attempt to make mute.

[mrveggieman]

Is anyone but veg, who is boycotting restaurants (did TIM make good on the bet?) going to boycott? I'm not.

Hell, no. I'm waiting for him to respond to my PM. I haven't even seen him on here at all since the election. I think that he got confused by the bet. He probably believes that I offered him taxman's bet of leaving the forum for a year since his side lost.

[duwal]

I don't really want to get into all that, but please recognize that this is not ALL Denny's. This is one group of the franchises owned by one man.

We will not do any good boycotting all Denny's....that's like saying all card collector's are pack searchers. We need people to stimulate the ecomony by eating out now and then, NOT boycotting all Dennys when not all of them are adding 5% surcharges......be smart with your boycotting, it could have unintended consequesnces.

exactly, all this is is a political move by someone with sour grapes about the election results and finding an opportunity to try and turn it on Obama when really the owner had many other options of handling the ordeal better.

Denny's across the board the last several years has had 31% or higher gross profit with the last, as of Sept. 30th 2012, being the highest in franchise history. They could have covered health insurance for all of their employees and still had an extremely good profit margin. Instead this owner want to dock workers hours and put a surcharge on patrons bills and try and say 'I have to do this because of Obama

The other fact is that he is the ONLY one that is doing this with his Denny's restaurants. The remainder of the Denny's establishments have not had any problem with the adjustments

http://ycharts.com/companies/DENN/gross_profit_margin

[jlzinck]

The real business fact is if you have a restaurant that employees 50 and net only 150K a year...You have already failed in business....If you knew anything of restaurants you would already know that...

I live in Mass were we have had the Mandate for more then 4 years now. I havent heard of one Denny's or other business doing ANY of these measures to avoid health care mandate! that in it self making any point you attempt to make mute.

He was talking about HIS net as owner I believe.

And PLEASE don't even think of comparing the Federal Mandate to the Mass Mandate.
If the Mass rules were in Obamacare then a business owner with 10 employees would be on the hook $3,000 max if they did not offer insurance. There are a LOT of small companies who do not offer insurance.

[mrveggieman]

exactly, all this is is a political move by someone with sour grapes about the election results and finding an opportunity to try and turn it on Obama when really the owner had many other options of handling the ordeal better.

Denny's across the board the last several years has had 31% or higher gross profit with the last, as of Sept. 30th 2012, being the highest in franchise history. They could have covered health insurance for all of their employees and still had an extremely good profit margin. Instead this owner want to dock workers hours and put a surcharge on patrons bills and try and say 'I have to do this because of Obama

The other fact is that he is the ONLY one that is doing this with his Denny's restaurants. The remainder of the Denny's establishments have not had any problem with the adjustments

http://ycharts.com/companies/DENN/gross_profit_margin

Denny's cooperate headquarters needs to put a stop to individual franchises doing this on the grounds that it is bad for the company name. If they dont it will appear that they are taking sides on a hot political issue and that is bad for business no matter who side you are on not to mention running the risk of ailienating 1/2 of your clientel.

[AUTaxMan]

Denny's cooperate headquarters needs to put a stop to individual franchises doing this on the grounds that it is bad for the company name. If they dont it will appear that they are taking sides on a hot political issue and that is bad for business no matter who side you are on not to mention running the risk of ailienating 1/2 of your clientel.

mrv, you haven't answered my question. which of the three choices should i make?

[AUTaxMan]

He was talking about HIS net as owner I believe.

I was talking about net profit, not gross profit, which is a relatively meaningless statistic (unless you are in the medical device manufacturing business).

[AUTaxMan]

The real business fact is if you have a restaurant that employees 50 and net only 150K a year...You have already failed in business....If you knew anything of restaurants you would already know that...

Are you saying that if I am a restaurant owner, I am a failure if I don't make over $150,000 net profit? Does that apply to just restaurants? Why?

[mrveggieman]

mrv, you haven't answered my question. which of the three choices should i make?

That a loaded question but to answer it you must do right buy your business. I'm not sure how doing something to save a couple of dollars in the long run but would cost you 10x more in the long term with decreased employee production and morale not to mention public backlash is a smart business decision.