I'll take a Double Bacon Cheddar Epiphany with a side of Life & a Reality Shake

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

The Straight Story Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Mon Mar-21-11 07:39 AM
Original message
Steven Greenhut: Carl's Jr. chewed up by California
   
Steven Greenhut: Carl's Jr. chewed up by California
....

Indeed, CKE Restaurants, parent of Carl's Jr., is likely to move its headquarters from Carpinteria, near Ventura, to Texas and is undergoing a rapid expansion of restaurants in the Lone Star State. Right before the budget circus got going Wednesday, CKE CEO Andrew Puzder spoke at the California Chamber of Commerce, blocks from the Capitol dome. Like most of us, Puzder loves California and has no interest in leaving it, but he told harrowing tales about doing business in a state that has gone from an entrepreneurial heaven to a bureaucratic nightmare.

"It costs us $250,000 more to build one California restaurant than in Texas," he said. "And once it is opened, we're not allowed to run it." This explains why Carl's is opening 300 restaurants in Texas and only maintaining its presence in California. Texas has lower taxes than California, but the reason for the shift has more to do with regulation and with the attitude of the respective governments.

Puzder complained about the permitting process here, where it takes eight months to two years to open a new restaurant compared to an average of 1 1/2 months in Texas. In California, restaurants have to provide new curb cuts, new traffic lights, you name it. The company must endure so many requirements and must submit to so many inspections that it becomes excessively costly – and the bureaucrats are in charge of the project.

Once the restaurant is open, Puzder said, the store's general managers are not allowed to run the business as if they own it. That's the key to the company's customer service approach – allowing general managers to do whatever it takes to make customers happy. But California's inflexible, union-designed work rules, for instance, classify general managers as regular employees. They must be paid overtime for any work beyond an eight-hour day. They must take mandated breaks at specified times.

http://articles.ocregister.com/2011-03-18/news/29147158...

rfranklin Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Mon Mar-21-11 07:44 AM
Response to Original message
1. Do those managers get to take as much as they want out of the till?
   
Like other owners do? I will bet not.

I know what he's *trying* to say but it still makes no sense because the notion that (successful) owners just take money from the till is BS.

JHB DU Moderator Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Mon Mar-21-11 07:57 AM
Response to Original message
2. I love how CEOs always complain about strict health, labor, and safety rules...
   
...about how "inflexible" they are (supposedly. seems to me like they get bent all the time). As if those weren't there because businessmen and corporations, when given "flexibility", inevitably use it to squeeze their employees and cheat their customers.

Bad practice drives out the good, because it's more profitable. The holy Invisible Hand doesn't "correct" this without people getting seriously injured or killed (and even then, it's not the market doing the correction).

And yet the proof is in the article: CA gets no new restaurants while TX gets to add 300 x ~50 taxpaying jobs (not counting construction, etc).

leveymg Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Mon Mar-21-11 08:01 AM
Response to Original message
3. Alleged over-regulation hasn't slowed down expansion of McDs, not at all.
   
I think this is a case where some corporation is looking to pressure a new Administration, and just doesn't want to play by the same rules as their competitors.

BTW: McDonald's, like Wal*Mart, is a major part of what's wrong with America, as far as I'm concerned.

How about an outright ban...

The Los Angeles City Council made history last year when it approved a temporary ban on fast-food restaurants in South L.A. Activists are pushing to make that ban permanent.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/09/07/fast-food-ban/

KharmaTrain Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Mon Mar-21-11 08:11 AM
Response to Original message
5. I've Seen This Movie Before...
   
This line is what stuck out at me (and I'm sure others):

for instance, classify general managers as regular employees. They must be paid overtime for any work beyond an eight-hour day. They must take mandated breaks at specified times.

The translation: since I offer you a couple more dollars another than the "grunts" and give you a title then I expect you to work whatever hours it takes. I had an employer who loved to make people "management"...make up a title and a salary so he could work them as hard as he could. When I first starting working for the company I was told that if I got the job done in 30 rather than 40 hours then so be it, but if it took 50, then so be it as well. In time I found myself skipping lunches and then staying late to make sure work was done...50 turned to 60 hours. All the time I was told this is what was "expected" of managers. But then everyone at that company was a manager or became one. Fortunately that practice ended when a bunch of us went to the state department of labor and had the company investigated and fined.

Just cause someone is a "manager" means little. Few have real "power of the purse" and are limited in what they can actually do. But they make convenient scapegoats. As that infamous manager once told me..."your management ends when it isn't what I like".

****ing clients demanding the services they paid for! Who do they think they are!
 
BTW - "power of the purse" was a phrase used by Madison to describe congress' ability to check the president's plenary military authorities and is woefully misplaced in your post.

CanonRay Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Mon Mar-21-11 08:27 AM
Response to Original message
6. and that's why Texas is strip mall heaven
   
with a fast food restaurant on every block. Or so it seems.

And that's why CA is an economic shit hole destined to sink lower until the rest of the union invades and installs a military governor.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x705545

[GOBUCKS]

KharmaTrain Donating Member (1000+ posts)     Mon Mar-21-11 08:11 AM
...
But then everyone at that company was a manager or became one. Fortunately that practice ended when a bunch of us went to the state department of labor and had the company investigated and fined.

In the democrat mind, this is an admirable course of action. That's why DUmmy KharmaTrain, and most other democrats, see increases in the minimum wage as the only way to improve their standard of living.

[Karin]

My compliments on the headline, SSB.  I don't know how any business operates in California.  I'm surprised any do.  The DUmmies just go 

Starry Messenger  (1000+ posts)        Mon Mar-21-11 09:16 AM
Response to Original message
9. Anti-union hit-piece by the author of "Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation." No agenda there. 

[DumbAss Tanker]

Denial.  Not just a river in Egypt.

 

[BlueStateSaint]

Denial.  Not just a river in Egypt.

 

It obviously has a tributary through the DUmp.

[DumbAss Tanker]

It obviously has a tributary through the DUmp.

The DUmp may actually be the fabled source of denial, the actual headwaters.

 

[jukin]

The state of Kalifornai has told me that 1+1=POTATO.  I have told them over and over that 1+1=2. The bureaukrats that have never learned math tell me I am wrong that it is indeed POTATO. Texas agrees with me that 1+1=2 and I am moving operations, investments, and jobs to Texas.

[Evil_Conservative]

Enjoy your delicious Carl's Jr, Texas! 

[Chris_]

Does Carl's Jr. have the hand-breaded chicken fingers that Hardees has? 

They're good when they're fresh.

[Rebel]

They're called Hardees here.

[Evil_Conservative]

Does Carl's Jr. have the hand-breaded chicken fingers that Hardees has? 

They're good when they're fresh.

YES they do! 

And they are so delicious.

[Wineslob]

rfranklin Donating Member (1000+ posts)  Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list    Mon Mar-21-11 07:44 AM
Response to Original message
1. Do those managers get to take as much as they want out of the till?
   
Like other owners do? I will bet not.

And you'd be right DUmbshit. The manager DOES NOT OWN IT.

Why do these morans always think that just because an owner of a business gave you a job you are then entitled to rape the "till"?

[Evil_Conservative]

And you'd be right DUmbshit. The manager DOES NOT OWN IT.

Why do these morans always think that just because an owner of a business gave you a job you are then entitled to rape the "till"?

That's just their mentality.  Instead of working hard for their bi-weekly check, they want a pay advance that does not have to be repaid -- unless they get caught.

[NHSparky]

Does Carl's Jr. have the hand-breaded chicken fingers that Hardees has? 

They're good when they're fresh.

Considering CKE owns both franchises, it's not surprising.

BTW--they also own Green/Red Burrito and used to own the LaSalsa chains.

[Chris_]

I've never been to a Carls' Jr. and wasn't sure if they were 100% identical.

[Ballygrl]

I the title of this thread!

[Ballygrl]

Thread killer!

Xithras  Donating Member  (1000+ posts) Mon Mar-21-11 01:26 PM
Response to Original message
18. Ignore the naysayers. I ran a business in Ca. It's a royal pain in the #$$
   
Most people who haven't owned businesses genuinely have no clue how stupid this state has become with its regulations. Apply, inspect, deny, inspect, approve, now visit the next office. It isn't TAXES, but all of the silly regulations and hoops you have to jump through to get anything done. Because NONE of the regulatory agencies coordinate with each other, even the simplest processes can take months. Like when we were informed that the toilet in our office bathroom didn't meet ADA requirements. A contractor was hired, who pulled a permit for the toilet, which triggered an inspection, which triggered a mandatory replacement of our buildings main inlet to add a meter, which then required a building water use audit, which eventually mandated that we update our exterior sprinklers, which required another permit, landscaping plans, and two more inspections. In the end, replacing a simple toilet required four months of work, permitting, and inspections, and about $15,000 worth of upgrades to the building. It's just too much.

There's another example happening right now in the Sierra foothills. Company bought a bit of land out in the middle of nowhere, far from any neighbors, and wants to open a basic rock quarry. It's in an area where it will have little environmental impact, and neither the state or private environmental agencies have any problem with it. Given that lack of opposition, and the dozens of jobs it will create, and the fact that the nearest neighbors are miles away, you'd think that a project of this sort would be encouraged, or at least wouldn't be heavily resisted. You'd be wrong on that. The county imposed more than 100 new regulations and "conditions" on them as a prerequisite to opening. Not to be outdone, two cities in a neighboring county are now on the verge of filing suits because THEY want to add regulations of their own. Even though the facility isn't in their county, the outgoing rock will be pulled on trains that run on century old rail lines through these communities. Those rails are already used often, but because the quarry may add more trains to the rails every week, they want a say in its regulation, and are pushing to have the quarry build expensive overpasses and underpasses in their communities and otherwise upgrade all of the crossings. The quarry operators have already indicated that doing so would kill the project...they're a small operation and couldn't possibly afford that sort of expense. These people just want to pull some rocks from the ground, dump them into rail cars, and send them down an existing rail line. It took two years for them to pull the permits from their OWN county to start operation, and now their county has placed the project on hold indefinitely so that neighboring counties have time to draft new regulations and figure out what goodies can be milked from them. It's stupid, and it looks like the 40-60 good paying, permanent (and possibly unionized) jobs that it was to create are going to vanish because the bureaucrats saw a new business opening, and viewed it as a chance to flex their muscles.

[Karin]

Dammit Ballygrl!   Post stealer. 

That was pretty funny, and also sad and maddening. 

Hey Jukin, are you really thinking of moving shop? 

[Ballygrl]

Dammit Ballygrl!   Post stealer. 

That was pretty funny, and also sad and maddening. 

Hey Jukin, are you really thinking of moving shop? 

And not 1 person has answered that post.

[JohnnyReb]

And not 1 person has answered that post.

Because they already know the answer....

They can see the answer in the mirror every morning.

[Mugsaway]

Cool...  Carl's Jr is coming to Texas.  Never had them but have heard nothing but good things. I'm sure it will be better than the crap that Whattaburger sells. Blah... 

[Randy]

That's just their mentality.  Instead of working hard for their bi-weekly check, they want a pay advance that does not have to be repaid -- unless they get caught.

Then they get 1-3 years of free 3 hots and a cot along with free anal invasion. To DUmmies it's win-win-win.

[Randy]

Cool...  Carl's Jr is coming to Texas.  Never had them but have heard nothing but good things. I'm sure it will be better than the crap that Whattaburger sells. Blah... 

Whataburger went tits up here and closed all their restaurants down. No one really seems to miss them....

[jukin]

Dammit Ballygrl!   Post stealer. 

That was pretty funny, and also sad and maddening. 

Hey Jukin, are you really thinking of moving shop? 

No. I closed up the small engineering company I've had for almost 20 years almost a year ago because of the outright hostility to business. God help you if you actually do icky manufacturing because that is the mark of the devil to the government here. What the poster Xithras said is 100% spot on. That was a simple version of dealing with Kalifornia Bureaucrators.  

About 9 years ago the biggest mortgage trust company in the USA, Fidelity, was HQ'd  in SB. The city, county, and state were really hitting them hard on regulations and taxes. One of the founders went to the county supervisors and city council to get some relief and told them he would be forced to leave the area with the status quo. The elected leaders told him to go kindly **** himself. Not one thing would they give an inch on. Company moved to Florida in the year. It was rumored that even after the move they saved $40 million dollars the very first year. Santa Barbara lost almost 500 high paying, non-polluting, white collar jobs. Not to mention millions in tax revenue. Our county is now $100 million in deficit this year. The city is close to 20 million and as we all know the state is 25 billion in deficit. This is the thinking and actions that ignore economic reality is a Quixote search for a socialist utopia.....and having not one single person that has run a business in elected office. The corrupt democrat-public employee union stranglehold is doing what communism always does, killing the host before moving on to a new one.

CKE (Carrows, Carls Jr, Hardys, Green/red burrito, ...) has it's headquarters in Carpinteria which is 15 miles from Santa Barbara. So I know the shit they have had to put up with from not only the sate but also the communists in charge of our county. The CEO of CKE is trying to stay but he gets no help from any of the governments. Our DUmbass congresswomen says that she is disappointed because CKE promised to stay in the state. Does she lobby the state to help them stay? NO. CKE will leave, make more money and leave another gaping hole in the government budgets. The communists will blame never think to blame themselves because DAMN IT 1+1does to equal POTATO!!!

[Traveshamockery]

I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could!  I love Texas.  I hate it at first but after the last few years, I can't imagine living anywhere else now.  My husband feels the same way. 

There is some slowdown in the economy here but there is also a lot of building going on.