Restaurants must have one of highest failure rates of any type of business. As I understand it, it’s about 50%. Those are not odds that I like. From a selfish perspective, I’m glad people are still willing to give it a try anyway – that way, I can eat there, at least until they go out of business.
But here’s what’s strange – have you ever noticed that there are locations where you’ll see several restaurants fail right in a row? And to me the funniest ones are those where the “new” restaurant is exactly the same as the one that just failed. I thought everyone knew Einstein’s quote where he said that repeating the same behavior over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. But obviously not.
This phenomenon exists nearly everywhere, and it’s thriving here in Syracuse. I won’t name names, as I don’t want to jinx anyone. But I will ask this: how many nearly indistinct pizza joints does one town need? I guess it’s like starting a bar – the person figures, hey, everybody drinks, so it’s a surefire hit. And who doesn’t like pizza? I love pizza, and even like lame pizza if I’m hungry enough. But if there are 10 of them per mile (and that’s a very low estimate), are they all going to make money? Well, anecdotally, we see the results with dead pizza joints all over the city. Same with the many dead Italian restaurants and so on.
I will say that a few pizza joints are really superior, and we make a point of identifying those here. The rest – if I know about them, I’ll just quietly ignore them – they’re having a tough enough time without me bad-mouthing them.
I try to guess why people keep opening the same failing business over and over again. Other than the undeniable power of simple ignorance and lack of market research, I guess that opening a restaurant just seems cool. Hey, I’ve got a few good recipes at home, or I want to start a business and I think I can grasp the restaurant concept more easily than the idea of starting a surgery business, or I worked in a restaurant but am tired of listening to my jerk boss so I want to become one, or…. who knows.
Maybe as time goes on, I’ll start naming “case studies” when they fail. At that point my critical comments can’t hurt them anymore. Or maybe not. We’ll see.
On the other hand, I support the idea of new pizza joints, diners, Itralian, restaurants in Syracuse. Let a hundred flowers blossom, most will die of course, but maybe one good one will survive. How many of the existing ones are really any good?
Dave S,
You have a valid point. The economy requires that new businesses are not afraid to give it a shot. Part of my point is that maybe fewer of these businesses would fail if they actually did something unique (or at least had their stamp on it), or actually bothered to do demographic analysis. But I’m guessing they won’t.
The typical business plan seems to go like this: 1. Open Italian restaurant just like the others. 2. Hope that having the biggest portions will make me succeed. (part 2 is optional)
I’ve made my Italian restaurant opinions known elsewhere on this site, there are some excellent ones in town, but others’ opinions will differ.
For me, if it’s yet another typical red-sauce joint, I won’t even bother. But some people adore that. And of course, for most people the first thing they see becomes their mother. So if their first experience is having red-sauce stuff in quantities that would sink a battleship, that becomes the measure of quality.
A perfect example would be that place on Bridge Street in Dewitt, right before the entrance to Widewaters. I believe it used to be a Caramella’s. It’s last itteration was… Rosario’s, maybe? You couldn’t ask for a much better location, right next to a business park.
If someone would just turn that into a classy sandwich, soup and salad place that was maybe open from 8am – 6pm, I think that place would make a killing. Imagine something like a Port City Cafe (Oswego) in that location. Holy moley…
Great point, Jim. Since that one’s in my neighborhood, more or less, I see it a lot. Lonnie and I used to enjoy Carmella’s when she was working right near there. Rosario’s didn’t last long. But yes, you’d think that it would be a good commercial spot. Back when I was playing guitar at Jalapeno’s twice a week, they even talked about buying it.
But no one is buying it. My guess: it’s overpriced. There are a number of rich landlords, some absentees, who don’t need to sell, and they will let a place completely decay until their high price is met. And the city doesn’t enforce codes on these guys for various reasons – instead they enforce codes on the smallest businesses that have more trouble affording the remediation. Isn’t that fun?
Or maybe there are other issues with that site, like it needs a big hazmat cleanup. Who knows.