Restaurants Don't Fail Any More Often Than Other Businesses

I recently saw someone say that 90% of restaurants fail in their first year.     I wrote about the topic of Misleading failure rates on small businesses a few years ago and later Business Survival Rates  in which I pointed to actual BLS data on the topic :  Chart 3. Survival rates of establishments, by year started and number of years since starting, 1994–2010.    All of that discussion was about failure rates of small businesses in general.   But are restaurants that much more prone to failure?   I mean it seems like a bit tougher business and we often see restaurants opening and closing... so maybe.

Turns out that, no, restaurants don't really fail much more than any other small business in general and the failure rate is nowhere near 90% in the first year.


I found two pretty good sources on the topic with similar numbers on the topic :

Bloomberg article The Restaurant-Failure Myth says that research from H.G. Parsa  an associate professor in Ohio State University's Hospitality Management program, "found that about one in four restaurants close or change ownership within their first year of business.  Over three years, that number rises to three in five."

Forbes article Restaurants Don't Fail, Lenders Do
"According to the National Restaurant Association 30% of new restaurants fail in the first year, and of those that survive, another 30% close in the next 2 years.  Sure that is significant but according to the Small Business Administration’s Office Of Advocacy the two-year failure rate for all small businesses is 31%, and after five years the rate increases to 49%."

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Best of Blogs For Week of June 5th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

The US Census has a page on New Single-family Homes in 2014   The page has direct links to census reports for various characteristics of new homes.    I might be one of the only people around who got excited seeing the page.   I found it via The Big Picture.

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Amazon Subscribe and Save Filler Items Under $2 for June 2015

Updated list of items under $2 eligible for Amazon Subscribe & Save :

Pac-Kit 12-015 Antiseptic Povidone PVP Iodine Wipe (Box of 10) = $1.02


Queen Helene Facial Masque, Mint Julep, 2 Ounce [Packaging May Vary] = $1.23


BC Analgesic Powder, 6 Count  (aspirin) = $1.26


DEWALT DW4518 4-1/2-Inch by 1/8-Inch by 7/8-Inch General Purpose Metal Cutting Wheel = $1.29


Pac-Kit 1-009 Fabric Adhesive Light Woven Flexible Knuckle Bandage, 3" Length x 1-1/2" Width (Box of 8) = $1.33


Curad Rolled Gauze, 4 Inches X 4.1 Yards = $1.46


Barilla Protein Plus Spaghetti Pasta, 14.5 Ounce = $1.65


True Lime Limeade Stick Pack, Black Cherry, 10 Count (1.06oz) = $1.68


PureBites Beef Liver Cat Treats, 0.85-Ounce = $1.69


Wilton Red Sprinkles = $1.69


Palmolive Tropical Tango Dish Liquid, 12.6 Ounce = $1.69 

Speed Stick Antiperspirant, Ultimate Sport, 1.8 Ounce = $1.70

 Lipton Pyramids, Bavarian Wild Berry 20 ct = $1.80

Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Naturals Popcorn, Classic Butter and Sea Salt, 76.3g Bags, 3 Count = $1.85

Speed Stick Deodorant, Musk, 3 oz = $1.88

Scotch-Brite Mirror Cleaning Cloth, 29cm x 29cm, 1-Count = $1.94

I'm citing the price for each item including the 15% discount that you'd get with 5 items which is the point here.

I try to list a variety of items so you'll have a better chance of seeing something on this list that you'd actually get use out of so its not just bought and wasted.

Warning :  If you use items off this list then make sure to watch them and cancel your subscription if you no longer want them or if the prices go up.   The cheap items I find seem to change pretty quickly so they may have large price hikes or be removed from the subscribe and save program. 

Prices change!   Note the list will get out of date within days or weeks.  I'll probably post a newer list before all of the above items are gone or have price increases.  But if you can't find something good here you can always go to Amazon and search for Subscribe & Save and sort based on prices and poke around to find something cheap to use as a filler.

I've discussed before how you can get a  better discount on Amazon Subscribe and Save purchases if you order 5 items at once.  However if you don't buy a lot of stuff then it can be hard to come up with a 5 item order.   However if your products are worth enough then it can be worth it to add some filler items to get up to 5 items to get the 15% discount. 

Say for example, you want to buy a couple cases of Pampers Swaddlers Diapers  that run $45.97 each with a normal purchase.   With Subscribe and save you'd get a 5% discount.to get the price down to $43.67.    But if you have 5 items in your S&S order then it is only $36.78 or a $6.89 savings.   And if you're buying two of those then thats double or $13.78.    Adding the 4 cheapest items listed here to the S&S order would only cost you $4.99 total with the 5 item discount so its worth buying those items to get you a net savings of $8.79.

Note if you don't want the filler items and only use them to get a 5 item discount then you can of course always give away the food items to someone you know or donate them to the local food bank.


--This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.
 
 

Safeway Delivery Versus Whole Foods Instacart

There are only a couple of options for grocery delivery now where we live.   Safeway delivers to homes and you can also get Instacart delivery.   Mostly for curiosity sake I thought it would be interesting to compare the prices for a sample shopping cart of items.

I'm comparing a small sample of organic items from Safeway home delivery and Instacart delivery from Whole foods :

	Safeway	Whole
juice	2.99	4.99
eggs	3.79	3.99
milk	7.19	5.49
banana	2.52	2.8
chicken	6.59	4.99
	23.08	22.26

The total price for the groceries I chose isn't too far apart.   But there are pretty decent price differences on most items in my example.   The juice, milk and chicken are each $1-2 different.   So depending on what you bought you could easily see either option being cheaper.

If these prices seem high then thats because they are organic and home delivered.  

The normal delivery fee for Instacart is $7.99 for orders under $35 and $3.99 for orders over $35.   You'd be best then to order over $35 if at all possible to minimize that fee.    Instacart has a 1 hour delivery window.

Safeway charges $9.95 for orders over $150 and $12.95 for orders under $150 and they might also tack on a fuel surcharge.    But if you pick a wider delivery window time you can get $3 or $6 off the charge so that could bring it down to as low as $6.95 for this order.

With the normal delivery fees included you'd come out over $5 cheaper for my example if you used Instacart.   With a broader delivery window you can get it cheaper with Safeway.


Bottom Line :  Depending on what exactly you order and what kind of delivery window you need you could get a cheaper price with either option.
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