I know for sure the boss is still ripping me off, that's wage labor. But profit per item at a restaurant is surprisingly low. Like 20%, generally that's made up with drinks that are much higher margin. Food costs on their own are no joke. Getting bulk from a supplier isn't that much cheaper than retail and often it's the same price. Especially if you want not shitty ingredients. Labor cost can be hard to figure item by item cause sometimes one item taking more time and being harder to do prep for means someone could be doing 2 or 3 different things instead with that time and a bunch of other shit but cooks get paid fuck all, so it's for sure where they try to save as much as possible. Then there's rent and utilities. Electric and water bills are really really high, we've got a propane pizza oven kept on all day at 640 degrees, Lotta gas getting used there. Add rent on top of that. My boss could still stand to make way less to no money off my labor but restaurant overhead is a lot. I've done the costing work at a few places and when all is factored in the profit margin is lower than most things that get sold. It's made up for in volume and drink sales.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

From my experience in BOH/inventory, food cost (or material input, for anyone reading this who's unfamiliar with the restaurant industry) ranges from 15% to 45%.

Any restaurant that owns its own property and has a steady flow of guests is going to be making bank. Also, any restaurant that doesn't rely on made-to-order meals is going to be more viable; this is why buffets exist.

[–] GalaxyBrain@hexbear.net 1 points 3 hours ago

Not many restaurants own their own property or have a steady flow unless they're fast food places or chains. That's also a pretty big range. If you go to culinary school you're taught than an averaged out across all items margin is generally around 20-25%. Buffets are more viable cause they save on labor cost tho. When you're making food yo order you're still taking from larger pre prepped supplies. I'd also have to imagine a buffet would have a lot more waste, holding food at serving temperatures means it's not sellable after a couple hours and you can't cool and then reheat it the next day. That stuff gets trashed. Any time I've done buffet style shit was for catering and there was always a shitload of leftovers.