Tell her to have some pride and open a real restaurant.

Here's how that conversation would go in a nutshell:

me: hey, sis, I have this broke friend online who says it's actually immoral to make a lot of money
her: lol k

I'd say it's immoral to make a lot of money while relying on the government to subsidize your employees starvation wages while also relying on a soulless corporation's identity to outcompete non-chain rivals who actually have standards. I mean it's almost like having two hired thugs assault people and steal their valuables.

You think regular restaurants are better? They use the tipping angle to literally pay their employees like $3 an hour.

If mom & pop can't compete then **** em.

When I was a waiter I brought this up to my then-manager one night

He countered by asking how much I had made in tips that night. Then he calculated that I made over $20 an hour for the night

I then countered by saying that a few days prior I had worked a lunch shift on a Thursday and made not even $20 total my entire 4 hour shift

We were kind of at a standstill with that "debate". Not like I expected to "win" or cause any actual change, but of course the manager of that ****ing Applebee's would go to bat for that payment model

Even when you make good tips that doesn't come out of their pocket so they're still saving on payroll. It's no different from Walmart having employees on food stamps. They could argue that when you factor in the food stamps their employees actually make a living wage but the point is they aren't the ones paying it.

And for all the memes about big evil corporations vs mom and pop start ups... I see Walmarts and McDonalds around here starting people at $12-15 an hour while mom and pop corner stores pay $8-9. Meanwhile the owners of those same stores go to Walmart or Costco or Sam's club to buy the products they stock their shelves with! If not then they use corporate vendors like Coke and Pepsi. And then you pay twice as much for it in their store as you would in Walmart while patting yourself on the back for "supporting local business." A sucker is born every day.

As for my sister, she's been managing this particular line of fast food for years and before that she worked as a regular employee at the same company. She understands their business model better than she understands how to open a sole proprietor restaurant, plus she doesn't have the capitol to start one. Most new businesses operate in the red for at least the first 2 years.

That being said becoming a franchise operator isn't easy either. The application process alone has taken over a year already with multiple interviews, a credit check, etc. Most people who apply don't make it to where she is at in the process and even still it's not a sure thing. Plus you have to be able to put up $20k just to apply (I think you get it back if you don't get accepted) and you need a bachelor's degree which she incurred a good $30k in debt getting.

So I have no sympathy for your boy scout moralizing, Bat. You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet.

That's true, I guess if you work for a small business you're more likely to develop that kind of bond. The bakery I worked at was a small family owned business and they were lovely people, so there was this nice cozy atmosphere. It all depends on the particular people you work for, though. I suppose a small business with toxic owners may be worse than a big corporation.

It's a ****ty system but still somehow more humane than ****ing minimum wage fast food slavery. And at the very least when you work at an actual, non-chain restaurant that you can potentially make a bombass burrito or filet mignon or steamed dumplings or whatever and feel legit proud of what you're providing to the world.

Every time I make a Whopper I just want to hurl it at the wall. No matter how well I make it it's still rat meat, stale bread, and putrid vegetables. It's a worthless industry in all possible ways and it was designed to be like that. Why would you want to buy your way into that being the rest of your life?

And yes I know money but come on it's lack of imagination.

You support corporate monopolies cause you're a free thinker who isn't shackled by leftist ideology. Pat on the back.

that's a really good point providing you're working in a place like that. I literally know people who have 'authentic' small shops and just stock up from big corporations, selling it at a higher price, like jwb said. But I agree that in general small businesses are likely to be better.

don't you work at 7/11?