Wings restaurants soar despite economy

 I’m still looking for the article I read on MSN for my previous post.  But I had to comment on this article when I saw it.  We have 2 “real” wing restaurants in town, Buffalo Wiild Wings and Wings To Go.  Buffalo Wild Wings just opened actually, so my husband and I decided to try it out.  It was closer to this side of town than Wings To Go.

Big mistake.  First, it cost almost as much to go to Buffalo Wild Wings as it costs to take the whole family to Wings To Go.  Second, I don’t know if it’s an Oklahoma thing or what, but the wings tasted like black pepper, not wing sauce.  When I go to Wings To Go, I know that they’ll have plenty of sauce on the wings and that I won’t taste pepper.  Overall, my opinion: Price: 0, Food: 2, Service 5.  Our waitress was great at least. 

As for what it says in the article.  First, it just agrees with what I’ve been saying.  The company I work for is going to have some problems in the next couple of years.  People are not eating out as much, and most of what we sell is foodservice — to restaurants.  We do sell to schools and prisons, so it’s not going to slow down a whole lot.  BUT, with the rising costs of meat, the prices need to be passed on.  That’s only going to squeeze restaurant owners more, and the whole cycle is not going to be pretty. 

I was talking to a friend of mine tonight, and I honestly think our economy is going to spend at least the next couple of quarters resetting.  No one can make up their mind whether the economy is going into a recession or a depression.  Others reason that there’s still a small growth so we’re not in either.  But prices on food are jumping at unbelieveable levels, the last estimage for food was a 6% increase.  Normally, increases are along the lines of 2% from year to year.  So wages aren’t going up, and food prices are going up.  Sounds like a recession to me, but I’ll fully admit I’m no expert.

The economy is going to reset, and it’s going to be a buyers market again.  That’s the only thing that makes sense.