I'm a California restaurant operator preparing for the $20-an-hour fast-food wage by trimming hours, eliminating employee vacation, and raising menu prices
This is the exact problem and hardly anyone is talking about it. These sorts of restaurants had real simple recipes and food back when they started. You didn't need the same kind of supply chain then that you need now, and when you throw the franchise services fees and royalties, what you end up with is exactly this.
Contrasting this, there's this hamburger wagon near where I live. It's literally a wagon, serving slider style burgers and the dude refuses to give you anything but pickles, onion, salt, and pepper. He's got a few drinks, some chip options, and that's it. He has zero condiments or other toppings and serves nothing else. And you know what? He makes a fucking killing. Rain or shine, this wagon has a line of 10-15 people come lunch time and has plenty more come throughout the day. Only hires two people to work it.
I'm sure he's raised them before, but he hasn't raised his prices once since I've been going there. 1.50 for a single or 3.00 for a double. Even crazier is the fact that it's been there for over 100 years. Never turned it into a storefront, never tried to make it a franchise, never added to the menu really. Just always did what it did best, and its still insanely popular.
Right?? It doesn't take much capital for a single person to produce much more than they consume. If a business can't figure out how to make one person worth their own salt AND profit, they're just shit rent-seekers. If I can put a tool in your hand that makes you worth 5 people without that tool but I can't profit, I'm a leech.