Restaurants face economic indigestion?

 

We've known for years that non-essential expenditure is one of the first things consumers cut back on when economic times get tough.  It's been a major factor in the closing of tens of thousands of US restaurants over the past few years, many of which have gone bankrupt.

However, I hadn't realized that in China, things are even more difficult for restaurants.

As more than a million restaurants closed their doors in recent months, diners in China are ordering takeout instead, amid skyrocketing numbers of food delivery riders.

Amid a flagging economy, glitzy shopping malls, noodle shops and eateries have been shutting down across the country, according to local media reports.

More than a million food and beverage outlets, including 30,000 noodle shops, shut down in the first half of this year, close to the total for the whole of last year, catering industry news service Canguanju reported.

The report came as Taiwanese dumpling chain Din Tai Fung ... said it would shutter 14 of its stores in northern China, citing the economic downturn.

Economic commentator Si Ling told RFA Mandarin that Din Tai Fung’s move is representative of the state of luxury or high-end dining in China, and a bellwether of economic buoyancy.

“Din Tai Fung was once very successful in China, off the back of booming economic growth,” Si said. “This shows how China’s middle class is shrinking at a faster and faster rate.”

“This huge consumer group is voting with its feet – there’s no faking that,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Chinese government’s insistence on positive economic news.

There's more at the link.

That's a heck of a statistic.  China has four times the population of the USA, so if it loses a million restaurants in a year, that's equivalent to the US losing a quarter of a million restaurants over the same period.  We're in economic tough times, all right, but not that tough!

It tends to put our problems into perspective.  We complain about our economy, but many other parts of the world have even more reason to complain.  Given the emphasis on globalism rather than nationalism in today's economies, I somehow doubt we'll find a solution to our economic problems unless and until they do, too - or until we abandon globalism and look to fix our own problems in our own way.  Sadly, that's not politically correct under the present system . . . which we hope will improve soon.

Peter