Small businesses are finding ways to avoid hiring.

[no_hypocrisy]

As a teen, I had a great summer job, scooping ice cream and cutting fudge. It was hectic and fun. I'm dismayed to see that stores like this have found a way of making the product available without having to hire 2-3 people to serve the customers. As you can see, there is enough business to pay for such employees.


Self-serve frozen yogurt all the rage in northwest Bergen County
http://www.northjersey.com/news/165590276_Self-serve_frozen_yogurt_all_the_rage_in_northwest_Bergen_County.html

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As the teens entered the store, they sucked in the cool air and began perusing a wall with seven self-serve frozen yogurt machines and about 70 containers that were filled with toppings.

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Let's YO! is one of handful of businesses serving self-serve frozen yogurt that recently has popped up across northwest Bergen County.

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At Planet Swirl, for example, a machine with Cappuccino and Creamy Caramel flavor levers on the outside are blended into Tiramisu in the middle. At that particular shop, one machine - there are seven in all - costs about $15,000.

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Russell Rothstein, co-owner of Let's YO!, said about 400 customers were served at his shop on opening day. It was raining, he said, and they didn't unlock the doors until 5 p.m.

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[Demeter]

1. Small business is struggling to stay open, period

Ask why the big companies and the government at all levels are laying people off. Those layoffs directly kill off smaller businesses.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. This particular business theoretically COULD pay for the customer service.

400 customers, multiplied by a $5 purchase each for one day would $2,000 that day. Salary could be $50 per person, $150 out of $2,000.

I don't see why a company can't pay it.

[Demeter]

5. The franchise fees are killing them, that's why

And if they tried to go independent, the city, county, state regulations and fees and advertising costs would be killing them.

As one who has been there, I know it's not the sales, it's how much you get to keep at the end of the quarter.

[ret5hd]

8. So franchises don't have to follow city,county, and state regulations?

[Demeter]

9. That's part of what the franchise fees pay, but there's much more

Franchise fees take 9% or more, right off the top.

[ret5hd]

10. They still have to follow all gov't regulations.

[Demeter]

12. One gets practical support from the franchiser, in the best cases

which is priceless. Otherwise, one just gets taken, and has to do all the work oneself, while trying to get off the ground.

[MrDiaz]

7. how much are

the franchise fees, electric bills, water bills, etc. All money made isn't necessarily profit.

[phantom power]

2. It's like reality-based economists are trying to explain...

Businesses are not job creators. No business will hire people until they've exhausted every other option for making money.

[AnneD]

4. I have gotten older and wiser....

I absolutely refuse to go through the self service check out and I rarely go through a bank drive through or ATM.

I have come to realize that when I do, I am taking a job away from someone. I resent that stores are using me as a source of free labor for themselves. They promised that ATM's would lower banking costs......Did it? They said that self checkout would lessen waiting time and allow the stores to lower prices.....Has it? Yeah right.

If the lines are long, be thankful business is so good and hire another person to keep higher customer satisfaction and keep those customers in your store, bank, or where ever. I have said as much to many a store manager. And the checkout clerks (older ones) thank me and the younger ones who are more prone to do something like that, have some food for thought.

It is a small thing, but it is another way I try to keep money local.

[dkf]

6. All they could use is a cashier.

Its much better to make your yogurt yourself so you can control the portions and therefore the costs. It allows for a lot more variety as it would be a hassle to instruct someone on all the stuff you want on it and it slows down the process.

We had a red mango that wasn't self serve. It was expensive to add toppings...$0.50 for each one.

After going there once I realized it was a better deal at yogurt land because I get all the toppings I want at the cost of its weight.

[elleng]

11. In downtown DC, too.

[jtuck004]

13. Well I, for one, could not BELIEVE they got rid of perfectly good horses for cars.

That's industrial yogurt. I know nothing about your past, but was it handmade ice cream and chocolate? That can still be done, and for a damn site less than a franchise. Not easy, but with some self-training, location, marketing, and a little money...

Will their store suck more income from the populace? Probably yes. (Somebody's gotta clean all that stuff every day, I hope they pay attention). A handmade chocolate and yogurt store would compete in a different space, do more for the human spirit and community, and become a place people return to because they have good memories. Could be profitable. (Might be a good idea for a coop. Whatever the other yogurt shop does, they are vulnerable to a lot of forces a cooperative is not.)

So it could be an opportunity too...just thinkin.

[mother earth]

14. All businesses are avoiding hiring, if they don't have to they won't. nt