having spent my life mostly doing what the writer herein speaks of i can certify his comments, and the comments below that expand upon the subject which is the insanity of opening a restaurant;


If I were starting out in life again, I would become a psychologist instead of a writer.

I would specialize in the peculiar mental derangement that causes people to open a restaurant. This mania infects thousands.

Approximately 60% of restaurants fail within three years.  And no wonder. There are tons of restaurants competing for business. 

Indeed, restaurants compete with everyone who has a kitchen and a cookbook, which is almost everyone.

My cooking is as good as most restaurants. They advertise "home cooking." Why not eat at home? One of my great pleasures in life, for which I am grateful, is being able to follow the whims of my appetite.  

When I consider the cost of food, equipment, furnishings, rent, advertising, labor, taxes, utilities, etc. I can't understand how restaurants survive. When I eat out, I am conscious that the owner's profit is the difference between what I pay and all of these items. No wonder I often feel ripped off in terms of quality and quantity. Many restaurants are rip-offs, plain and simple.

For me, opening a restaurant would be like renting, furnishing and staffing a reading room where people buy my books and then sit down and enjoy them. I would go broke.

Never sell anything that can't be mass produced. Once I've finished a book, it's done. But a restaurant must manufacture its product anew every time, to exacting standards or face the indignation of the customer and a scathing online review. ............https://www.henrymakow.com/2019/05/the-insanity-of-opening-a-restaurant.html