The American restaurant industry took a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when bankruptcies hit 22%. Last year, thanks to Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” economic policy, that rate remained high at 14% according to the source Bankruptcy Data.

“Restaurants Got Too Greedy, Too Expensive… Now They’re EMPTY?!”- Social Symore

Some in the restaurant industry will blame it on the Democrats pushing for a raise in the minimum wage increasing labor costs. Some are saying it was the inflation in food prices during the first two years of the Joe Biden administration. Others are complaining about the cost of utilities as restaurants require heavy utility use.

Many people and news sources are chiming in with their own thoughts:

“Why menu prices keep going up at your favorite restaurants” – ABC10

“This Fast-Casual Restaurant Has Increased Prices By Nearly 100% Over 5 Years” – Yahoo Finance News

Some restaurants in the nation have taken to modifying their past business models. Some examples include:

• Reduced days of operation in the week.
• Reduced hours of operation during the days.
• Reduced hours of kitchen operation allowing bars to be open without food.
• Adding state gambling machines for extra revenue.
• Cutting back on wait staff requiring fewer people to wait more tables.
• More frequent menu reprints with ever increasing prices and/or less selection variety.
• Daily food specials allowing specific entries cooked in bulk (taco Tuesday/fish Friday).

As many seniors grow older, they have taken to dining earlier (Early Bird Specials) which usually begin around 4:00 in the afternoon. This allows seniors to avoid the rush of the main dinner crowd later but the problem is, for those who stick around for drinks after their early bird meal, they find out there are no more dinner crowds. In some instances these seniors eat for a reduced price to allow them to save money from the regular menu prices.

This post on the Wall Street Apes X account does a pretty good job of highlighting what most Americans are experiencing in both chain and independently owned restaurants alike these days.

CONCLUSION:

In times like these America’s capitalist system experiences what is called “market corrections”. This can mean many different things but in this instance it involves Americans having less disposable income for luxuries (such as dining out), the restaurant industry exceeding a price point that the consuming public is willing to endure, and the public changing their buying habits rapidly to adjust. Many people are now dining at home cooking for themselves again.

We reported previously on many restaurant chains going out of business during the Joe Biden administration. Some we lost in the major city near where I live included the following:

• Applebee’s
• Dunkin Donuts
• Hooters
• Lone Star
• KFC
• Perkins
• Sonic

And this does not even address the independently owned restaurants we lost which had some of the best cuisine you could imagine. For example; Locally we lost one business named “Stone Eagle” where the custom designed building less than 20 years old was torn down to make way for a brand new Raising Cane’s Chicken fast food franchise restaurant. The new establishment opened just this year thus far is doing great! But the Stone Eagle is sadly missed. 

“Beloved Chain Restaurants We Might Sadly Lose In 2025” – Mashed

I feel bad when a restaurant closes. I have known owners and seen how hard they have had to work both mentally and physically to establish their business and keep them profitable. Most of these businesses fail statistically so the odds are already against them.

But what we are seeing happening now has been a one-two punch never seen before in American history. Punch one was the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and all of the lockdowns that destroyed existing business models. Punch two was the Joe Biden Administration’s “Build Back Better” economic program which nobody has been able to explain to me yet. Joe said “It is where we grow the economy from the middle out.”

I just wish we had one real journalist at the time who asked Joe, “What the hell does that even mean?!” Instead they opted to ask him what flavor his ice cream was. The correct answer Joe did not give was, “A flavor of ice cream from one of the American businesses still left in business to serve me!”

© 2025 by Mark S. Schwendau