4 Nov 2024 7:25 am
When nearly half of all small businesses are struggling so much that they can’t even pay their rent, you have an enormous economic crisis on your hands. The last time that we witnessed anything like this was during the peak of the COVID pandemic, but here in 2024 we don’t have a major global health crisis to blame for our catastrophic economic performance. In March 2021, 49 percent of small business owners in the United States could not make their rent payments, but that was because so many states had instituted lockdowns which were severely harming the economy. In September 2024, 48 percent of small business owners in the United States could not make their rent payments, but there is no excuse this time around…
continued....
We have a “lockdown economy” without the lockdowns.Does anyone out there want to try to put a positive spin on this?Because if you do, I would love to hear what you have to say.Fox Business interviewed one restaurant owner in California that has tried everything that she can think of to keep her restaurants going…Close to half of small business owners couldn’t pay their rent in September, marking a new three-year high.According to business networking platform Alignable’s September Revenue & Rent Report, 48% of small business renters could not make their rent payments. That was up from 41% in July and August. And it was the highest it has been since the Covid recovery era in March 2021, when 49% of small business owners were delinquent.
I feel so badly for her.But the truth is that there are countless other small business owners that are in the exact same boat.Our economy really stinks.That is the bottom line.Of course many larger businesses are deeply struggling too. In fact, we just learned that TGI Fridays has just filed for bankruptcy…A regenerative farmer and restaurateur who closed several of her California eateries is now facing the possibility of shutting down her remaining two locations.Mollie Engelhart, owner of Sage Regenerative Kitchen, said despite her continuous attempts to keep her restaurants afloat, they are “barely hanging on by a thread.”“It doesn’t feel like we can hold on because I’ve run out of assets to literally liquidate, to keep us above ground and above water,” Engelhart told FOX Business. Engelhart said she and her husband “leveraged everything” including their retirement and home, in hopes that things would turn around.
When I first started using the term “restaurant apocalypse” many months ago, a lot of people thought I was exaggerating.Since then, chain after chain has gone bankrupt.It turns out that I was not exaggerating one bit.Meanwhile, the percentage of middle-income households that rate their financial situations negatively has just hit a brand new high…Casual dining chain TGI Fridays Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas on Saturday with the company’s executive chairman saying it still has not fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.The bar and grill chain, known for serving up hamburgers, loaded potato skins and $5 happy hour drinks, said the move was done to “address legacy liabilities and position restaurants for long-term success,” the company said in a press release.The Dallas-based company says 39 of its corporate-operated domestic restaurants would remain open.
continued....