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A Fast-Food Problem: Where Have All the Teenagers Gone?

posted by mrpg on Thursday July 19 2018, @03:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the to-study dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

NY Times:

A quarter-century ago, there were 56 teenagers in the labor force for every "limited service" restaurant — that is, the kind where you order at the counter.

Today, there are fewer than half as many, which is a reflection both of teenagers' decreasing work force participation and of the explosive growth in restaurants.

But in an industry where cheap labor is an essential component in providing inexpensive food, a shortage of workers is changing the equation upon which fast-food places have long relied. This can be seen in rising wages, in a growth of incentives, and in the sometimes odd situations that business owners find themselves in.

Too many restaurants, not enough teens to work in them.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Thursday July 19 2018, @07:56PM (3 children)

    by suburbanitemediocrity (6844) on Thursday July 19 2018, @07:56PM (#709597)

    I walked 6 miles to my first job as a courtesy clerk at a grocery for $190/wk (inflation adjusted), even when it was 112F out. A lot of kids did.

    https://weather.com/weather/today/l/85042:4:US [weather.com]

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  • (Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday July 19 2018, @08:11PM (2 children)

    by Snow (1601) on Thursday July 19 2018, @08:11PM (#709600) Journal

    I miss courtesy clerks. They used to bag your groceries up and put it on a special cart thing and load all that into your car.

    Now I have to carry my own groceries.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @08:29PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 19 2018, @08:29PM (#709605)

      Uphill in the Snow both ways?

      Wait, this has possibly undesired connotations

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 20 2018, @03:53AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 20 2018, @03:53AM (#709788)

      There is a supermarket called Publix which does that, more or less. The cart is ordinary.

      I get in the checkout line. I put my own groceries on a conveyor belt, though I'm sure I'd get help if I asked. An employee runs my groceries over a scanner/scale, passing them to a second employee who places them into bags. Bags are free, and they ask if I want paper or plastic. That second employee then loads the bags back into the cart. Once checkout is done, the second employee offers to go out to my car with me. If I accept, they will push the cart and then load the groceries into my vehicle. They then take the cart back in.

      Publix is the dominant supermarket chain in many areas, particularly in Florida.