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Comment by PlatoIsADisease | Hacker News Reader

If only food service paid decent money.

I know the majority owner of a pretty massive fast food chain (600 stores, most franchises) and he was telling me he was offered 10M to sell the company. His entire life he worked day and night, and he would be getting $3M. (Mind you, he owns dozens of franchises, so he still keeps those)

He brought his kid into the business, and I can tell he has a bit of envy that I own a small software company that within a few years is approaching 1M in revenue. There is less glamor and margins in food.

I have some ideas of using my math/engineering skills to make low cost recipes that taste good, using my masters in Industrial Engineering to lower cooking/labor costs, but... economics pushes me towards high value. Any time I do the math on food service, I see myself making 100k/yr, and never 1M/yr.

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You act like $100k/year isn't still well above average. Hell it's above what SWEs make in any country that's not the USA.

But pertaining to this article, the key to tiny Japanese restaurants such as these snack bars is that their startup costs are extremely low, rents are low and since they're tiny, they don't need staff so they keep all the profit. Probably good enough to make an average living without too many worries.

100k is a pay cut for me. Especially the risk and amount of work involved.

I program a w2 job and can make 1.5x that without difficulty. I program for my own company and make 2-20x more.

I don't think the average person could handle the risk, difficulty of labor, and knowledge to run a successful restaurant that makes 100k/yr.

So you're just bragging now? Do you even have a point? Cool that you make so much, but for most people in most of the world, $100k is a lot.

> I don't think the average person could handle the risk, difficulty of labor, and knowledge to run a successful restaurant that makes 100k/yr.

Margins are so low in restaurants in North America because of absurd regulations, zoning, rent, etc... Literally 90% of the costs are bullshit.

That's why it's difficult. You need a ton of revenue to deal with the bullshit, which means large upfront investment, staff, expensive rent, etc... You're doing more than most CEOs. Take away all the bullshit and it's a pretty straightforward business that anyone can do: you sell food and drinks.

In Japan or much of the EU, to make $100k you really only need to sell $150-200k. No staff, tiny footprint, minimal regulations, cheap rent or you own it. That's how restaurants can survive there with like 10 guests per night.

Sysco makes a billion a year basically doing that.

They basically deliver food--not necessarily complete meals. But, yes, a lot of restaurants use them for food delivery. Probably not at the highest end but they can be pretty decent given good food prep.

I don't know where you want to draw the line but imo they get pretty close to complete meals (https://foodie.sysco.com/) especially when it comes to desserts and appetizers.

The desserts are where I can tell the most since one restaurants lava cake is often dangerously close to every other mid tier restaurant.

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