Restaurants feeling financial pinch as industry sees drop in employment

Honey, Lime. Ginger vinaigrette. I’m thinking the Cascade room on Vancouver’s Main Street is getting ready to open its doors. But for many in the industry, that’s becoming more and more difficult. Everything across the board, every line item you can possibly imagine, from insurance to to, you know, property taxes to licensing, to food, to alcohol, there’s nothing that hasn’t been touched. Across the country, restaurants and accommodations lost more than 26,000 jobs in March compared to February. After seasonal adjustments, it’s the lowest point since December 2022, according to Restaurants Canada. Over the last couple of years, food costs shot up by 24%, labor 15, and insurance rates skyrocketed 30 to 60%. As restaurants spend more, customers are staying home more, Everything’s gone up except people’s ability to pay any of that stuff. We hardly ever go out to eat anymore. And it’s happy hour, which is happy hour, I think is the only thing that must be keeping places like this alive right now. Most restaurants are actually eating most of that cost, like most restaurants are actually there. You know, their margin hasn’t gone up and what it should because if it did that, like literally no one would walk through the doors. Survival is all the more challenging, says the Cascade room owner, with certain rules and laws, especially surrounding liquor sales. We need to look at it very differently. We need to look at how we can support our industry, not just go out and give them fines. Like how how can we help them survive. We have we have a very archaic licensing system. With the first half of the year expected to be a challenge, restaurants may need more happy hours to draw on customers. Grace key global news.