After 37 years, longtime Ballard staple Louie’s Cuisine of China is closing, and I blame Seattle’s $15 an hour minimum wage! Although probably, its closure had something more to do with this:
The property was sold last month for $2.49 million, property records show.
In fact, restaurants and other businesses close all the time, and for all kinds of reasons:
Louie’s expected closure comes three months after the landmark Frontier Room, around since 1954, closed in Belltown. Last year the legendary Alki Tavern closed, and Funhouse music club was closed in 2012 to make way for a seven-story building near Seattle Center. Claire’s Pantry, a Lake City staple since 1974, closed in February 2013, and Piecora’s Pizza on Capitol Hill closed in April after 33 years.
In March 2010, the first restaurant in the Red Robin chain closed in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood.
Brace yourselves. In the coming years we’re going to hear all kinds of stories about businesses closing because they can’t afford to pay Seattle’s minimum wage. If $15 was already in effect, we’d be hearing it about some of the businesses above. But correlation is not causation, so you can cast all these anecdotes aside.
It will take a decade or more to truly suss out the impact of Seattle’s minimum wage by comparing local economic trends to both historical data, and to economic trends in other locations. But that won’t stop the scare stories from coming.
But correlation is not causation, so you can cast all these anecdotes aside.
Indeed. Unless it’s a building being sold. In which case it must be clear evidence
http://horsesass.org/15-minimu.....ord-price/
that the higher minimum wage won’t materially affect business.
Hmm. If I were Sherlock Holmes, I would consider owner retirements, not minimum wage, to be the prime suspect in most of these closings of long-time small businesses.
This week’s Barron’s Mailbag contains a reiteration of my favorite anti-Social Security argument of all time:
“To the Editor:
Democrats don’t trust the stock market, bankers, or the free-enterprise capitalist economic system. They do trust power, and they have it. In great part, they acquired it by taking the ‘trust fund’ cash and using it to gain and retain power. The IOUs left in place of the cash are worthless because the federal government does not have any cash to redeem them. The fund was used to pay for monumental failures such as the war on poverty, Medicare, food stamps, and student loans, to name a few ‘elect Democrats’ programs.
Theodore Wight
Seattle”
http://online.barrons.com/article/mailbag.html
This rant is dishonest on many levels, but let’s skip over its mischaracterizations of Democrats and the fact Republicans borrow, too, and our national debt was also incurred for wars, military spending, corporate welfare, and other things Republican lawmakers vote for. We’ll just bypass that in the interest of brevity.
Barron’s is an investing publication catering to affluent readers. Its editorial slant is conservative, which is why letters like this don’t get weeded out at the editor’s desk.
I don’t know the letter writer, nor do I know what’s in his personal portfolio, but I would be less than shocked to learn he has money in Treasuries. You know, those “worthless IOUs” issued by the government.
Until now, at least, the U.S. Treasury has been regarded as the more creditworthy borrower in the history of the world, and Treasuries are considered the safest of all investments. Some conservatives are trying to change that by forcing our government into default, but they don’t have popular support for that, possibly because so many people own Treasury bonds.
And perhaps that’s what this letter is really all about — a frustrated letter writer who’s upset because our government is still honoring its debts and will continue to do so — unless people who want to sabotage our government’s credit standing get the upper hand.
Why anyone would vote for such people is beyond me.
Okay, so @2 above, you have a glaring example of rightwing dishonesty. (“Social Security is bankrupt because Treasury bonds are worthless.”) Goldy is onto something here. People who tell whoppers like that will also tell whoppers like this: “Louie’s Cuisine of China is closing because the minimum wage will rise to $15 an hour in 2025.” And lots of people will believe it, because people who vote for Republicans are credulous fools to begin with.
Over $2 million would certainly be a nice retirement package.
The treasury bonds aren’t paying enough. The government should pay at least 10% for the money it borrows from the SS trust fund. It’s credit rating doesn’t matter. What matters is what the government should pay for the privilege of borrowing from our retirement accounts at Social Security.
Seattle is an incredibly hostile environment for small business, but the hostility stems from: (1) high real-estate prices, (2) the B&O tax, which bites, even when a profit is not made, (3) an enormous failure to maintain all but the most valuable buildings, (4) a transit system that has been gutted by the state government.
The $15/hour minimum wage is pretty small potatoes compared to those.
Note that the owners of Louie’s have stated that they are looking to reopen the restaurant in some other location. The website even has a form where you can enter your email address to be notified when they reopen.
http://louiescuisine.com
@ 1 thank you for pointing out Goldy’s typical one sided hypocrisy. Any anecdote like the hotel sale that supports his argument is evidence. And anecdote like a restaurant closure that disagrees with his argument is a “scare tactic”. Go it.
Louie’s had been in a slow decline since Art Louie died some years ago, and as the redevelopment around the intersection of Leary and Market (and all the new hipster hangouts) sucked the customers away.
As to Claire’s…that used to be one of our favorite Sunday brunch destinations, but the Petosa family (yeah, the accordion folks) sold it a decade ago, and it’s sucked donkey balls ever since.
If the Louie’s location gets redeveloped, it’s going to be another threat to the already-struggling Last Resort Fire Department, which houses and services its collection of vintage fire engines in the building across the street.
I really liked the ’60s/’70s-era decor in that place, and it’s a shame that (I assume) the building will be torn down for condos or apartments. That stretch of 15th, in the midst of auto supply stores, is not a good location for a restaurant.
@1 & @9
I’d say being willing to invest record amounts of money in a business that is extremely labor intensive where those costs are certain to rise in the next 10 years shows the investors aren’t terribly worried about the minimum wage in the Seattle area.
While hotels do get converted to other uses, and at least part of investing in a hotel is for the value of the underlying real-estate I doubt we will see any of the properties mentioned converted to apartments, condos, or office space any time soon.
With restaurants there are any number of reasons they close, including the owners being bad business people. Currently the most popular reason in Seattle seems to be losing their lease either due to redevelopment of the property or not being able to afford rising retail rents.
@ 12 you are missing the point. There are lots of factors that affect any economic transaction, but Goldy selectively chooses which anecdotes are valid or not whether the support his argument or not. If it doesn’t support his argument it must not be true, but if it does it is evidence of his gospel. Kind of like how the GOP is against background checks for gun purchases because it “violates” the 2nd amendment, but they don’t think increased requirements to vote violates the 15th amendment. Kind of like Goldy they want it both ways.