One Cheeseburger, No Paradise: $20

Restauranteurs are watching razor-thin profit margins dissolve into nothing as diners balk at rising food costs.

Photo by Kelly Visel on Unsplash.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, independent restaurant owners are experiencing their biggest challenges of the past 4 years.

And, considering the last 4 years, that’s saying something.

“The Skyrocketing Costs Driving Cheeseburger Prices Up — and Restaurant Owners Out,” reported Heather Haddon and Ruth Simon in an in-depth article for the Wall Street Journal this week. “Escalating payroll costs and diners’ dwindling tolerance for higher checks are putting independent restaurants in a squeeze.”

A “squeeze” may be putting it mildly. After 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, many small and independently owned restaurants were already in quite a squeeze. New challenges, coupled with compounding old ones, are eating the lunches of eateries from coast to coast.

“A $16 bacon cheeseburger may not be enough to save your neighborhood bar and grill,” began Haddon and Simon in the WSJ, adding that, “Independent restaurants are on financial life support, owners say, squeezed between escalating payroll costs and diners’ dwindling tolerance for ever-higher checks.”

Many readers of the Wall Street Journal might have found themselves wondering where the…