I was unaware that there was a recent dog food recall. I’ve gotten Cistern robocalls for recalls (frozen vegetables or something) in the past so I doubt it.
I’m not sure why there is a shortage of ramen noodles (do those even count as food?? really??)
But here’s a picture of the cause of the ice cream shortage:
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1/4 lb beef hot dogs. 2 options gone, third option limited and 33% price increase over old options.
Abolish the tipping system while we’re at it too
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On the subject of the perceived labor shortage, my €0.02 worth:
While unemployment benefits may have contributed to some of the effect, I think the full explanation is a bit more complex, including factors like:
- People who decided to retire before they otherwise might have because of the pandemic lockdowns, and the echoes of filling positions vacated by those retirements
- People who discovered new, higher-paying positions as a result of having been furloughed with the pandemic. (Anecode: my wife needs a wheelchair at airports. We recently visited Memphis. The evening we arrived, there was only one wheelchair-pusher on duty in the entire airport; apparently they haven’t been able to staff back up because FedEx has hired just about everyone it can find in that market.)
- Families that discovered they could get by with a single income and/or folks who discovered a higher value on family/home life, increasing the perceived opportunity costs of work.
- We did have a major bump in mortality and disruption in immigration; presumably these changes alone would have some impact in the labor market.
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Having worked in the industry when I’m young, I don’t mind tipping. But two thingsare making me change my mind.
First, Canadian restaurants are now using tips as pay to meet minimum wage. So now my tips are base pay, instead of on top of.
Secondly, with the change to all tap payment, I get the 15percent button handed to me before I can tap. Fine at a restaurant, but not fine where I think they’re just tip begging. I don’t tip 15 percent at the local coffee shop for a couple of coffees and a donut. But I’m being asked to now, as a matter of course.
From @meeps link to graphing the pandemic comes a graph of women in the workforce before and after the pandemic.
That is super interesting. Is there a more detailed graph that shows the reduction by age? The link provided indicated that the majority of the decrease was due to mothers but seeing an age breakout would be interesting.
Showing an embarassingly lack of knowledge about the Euro. What are fractional Euros called? Cents? Centieuros? Pence?
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A Euro is subdivided into 100 cent (officially “cent” is the plural).
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That’s done here as well.
I haven’t even been served yet, and you want a tip? Or is this a “tip us now, so there’s no ‘special sauce’ on your sandwich” situation? Not only that, but they’re asking for a tip when there is no service! For pick-up orders!
These are times when cash in pocket is necessary. I’ll tip in cash, relative to the service I have been provided.
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I freaking hate this aspect. And tipping culture in general. I still tip quite a lot, and always tipped for carry-out orders during COVID. What I’d like is for people to just be paid a decent wage, but I’m not gonna fix the $2.13/$7.25 min wage. So I guess I’m just perpetuating the problem by trying to help restaurant workers earn enough to keep gas in the car. /rant
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I’ve looked at tipping for carry out during COVID as a voluntary donation to the staff. Most of our takeout is from a family owned place we frequented pre-COVID tho.
Tipping for takeout at family owned place: 20%
Tipping for takeout at Olive Garden: 10%
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Same. We have some local places that I really, really wanted to hang around. Most seem to have weathered the storm, except my cheese shop closes for good today. 
Yeah, I dislike this practice of premature tip begging quite a bit. The practice of tipping has become more widespread, especially at fast food establishments.
If I have to pay before I get my food, then you are a fast food place and tipping should not be a required part of the transaction.
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Also, if they’re asking me to tip, I should be able to ask several questions to them before deciding to tip.
What’s your hourly salary? How many hours do you work? Where is your manager, so I can speak to them about raising your salary?
Maybe I’ll just keep cash on my person, so I can “tip under the table.”
Also, I’m wondering just how much info about my tipping behavior is being captured by “them.” (No, I’m not sure who “they” are in this situation.)
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Zip your ice cream container inside a zippered plastic bag, it will keep it from getting too frozen.
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I shall try that. Thanks.
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I wonder what influence min. wage is having on some employers’ ability to hire at the same levels they had before.
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