Quaker Steak and Lube DEAD!!!

[Tonik]

You pirates and pirate haters will have to find someplace else to hang out at.

 

 

http://www.jsonline.com/business/quaker-steak--lube-files-for-bankruptcy-and-will-be-acquired-by-travelcenters-of-america-for-25-mi-b-351030331.html

[ReconRat]

so... they will return as freeway truck stops? ahrrrr matey

[Tpoppa]

I thought their food was mediocre at best and overpriced.

[Bad324]

I thought their food was mediocre at best and overpriced.

ALL THIS ALL THE TIME

 

I haven't eaten there exactly once in the last 6 years and it was only because I had a gift card

[RidersDiscount]

I thought their food was mediocre at best and overpriced.

+1. We had one near us and closed down about a year or two after opening. If I am going to pay for overpriced wings I will go to Buffalo Wild Wings. 

[redkow97]

acquired by a new company doesn't mean they'll re-brand the chain.  Probably quite the opposite.  They'll just change up the menu and cut operating costs.

 

Bike night will still be a thing.  It's pure profit for them.  Draws thousands of people and sells beers at 400% markup.

[zx3vfr]

acquired by a new company doesn't mean they'll re-brand the chain.  Probably quite the opposite.  They'll just change up the menu and cut operating costs.

 

Bike night will still be a thing.  It's pure profit for them.  Draws thousands of people and sells beers at 400% markup.

No, there is virtually no mark up for canned beer. Even at 3 dollars which is what I recall paying over the summer, they're only making $2 a can, minus the huge liability insurance you must have for having people drink in the parking lot, hiring police and security, paying a dumb broad to get half naked and bake in the heat. No bike nights are no pure profit. If anything it's probably a break even point hoping to get people inside to buy over priced wings, burgers and salads. The big money is in liquor sales. Not Beer, especially canned or bottled beer.

[snot]

this makes sense since the Beavercreek one closed about a month ago.

[jschaf]

I went to one of their so called "bikè nights" a few years ago. Good riddance to bad rubbish IMHO.

[Gixxus Christ!]

Wings were sub par for sure. Bike nights were pretty lame.

[TimTheAzn]

I usually am bored and just roll through while looking around and then ride back home, my feet never touch the ground unless I have to stop for a drunk pirate walking in the parking lot.

This kind of makes me sad however because the Sheffield location is where all the counsellors from the Korean adoptee camp I volunteer at go to eat before going home.

Sent from my iPhone.

Edited November 18, 2015 by TimTheAzn

[redkow97]

No, there is virtually no mark up for canned beer. Even at 3 dollars which is what I recall paying over the summer, they're only making $2 a can, minus the huge liability insurance you must have for having people drink in the parking lot, hiring police and security, paying a dumb broad to get half naked and bake in the heat. No bike nights are no pure profit. If anything it's probably a break even point hoping to get people inside to buy over priced wings, burgers and salads. The big money is in liquor sales. Not Beer, especially canned or bottled beer.

You demonstrated how insurance is expensive, not beer.

I pay $.60/can for beer by the 30 pack. You're welcome to buy as much as you want from me for $3/can.

[zx3vfr]

You demonstrated how insurance is expensive, not beer.

I pay $.60/can for beer by the 30 pack. You're welcome to buy as much as you want from me for $3/can.

16oz cans cost about $1 each. Ok even at .60 a can not including delivery fees, paying someone to unload the truck, paying someone to put them in storage, paying someone to take them out of storage, filling up bins with ice, putting them in said ice, then paying someone 4.05 an hour and trusting them to make sure everyone buying is 21.

 

So my point still rests, there is not money to be made in beer and yes in terms of handling it makes it very expensive. Unlike a bottle of liquor that can can pour 25 drinks (based on a standard 750ml bottle).

 

A bottle of bacardi black (my poison of choice) costs me 16.25 / 25 (drinks) is $0.65 before handling, which doesn't have to be chilled, and a bar back can move 12 bottles or so at a time, which equates to 300 drinks and on the low low low low low side of $4.50 per serving of liquor is an amazing $1350.

 

Even with a trolley and moving 5  30 packs (150 cans) at a time and selling at the high side of $5.00 a can and your estimate of $0.60 is only $660. Making half the money of liquor and involving a whole lot more handling because of having to keep it cool and the sheer bulkiness of moving 150 servings of beer at a time vs. 300 servings of liquor at a time.

 

Does that explain how canned and bottled beer is not a money maker?

[serpentracer]

No, there is virtually no mark up for canned beer. Even at 3 dollars which is what I recall paying over the summer, they're only making $2 a can, minus the huge liability insurance you must have for having people drink in the parking lot, hiring police and security, paying a dumb broad to get half naked and bake in the heat. No bike nights are no pure profit. If anything it's probably a break even point hoping to get people inside to buy over priced wings, burgers and salads. The big money is in liquor sales. Not Beer, especially canned or bottled beer.

beer when you buy it at the grocery is already marked up about 300%.   it's close to 1000% when you buy a $3 can of it at a place like QSL.   that's according to a documentary I watched before.  (about 15 years ago)  

[zx3vfr]

beer when you buy it at the grocery is already marked up about 300%.   it's close to 1000% when you buy a $3 can of it at a place like QSL.   that's according to a documentary I watched before.  (about 15 years ago)

No it's not. Perhaps from what it takes to produce it but a liquor store or grocery store selling at or slightly above state minimu, is a 25-33% markup.

My usually go to is a 25oz bud ice costing me $1.19 at the liquor store next door so that can costs the liquor store $0.90 assuming a 30% markup. Remember in Ohio we have huge beer distributors and a giant multi national beer do twisting the arms of our politicians making sure that liquor stores and bars etc. can never buy direct from the Brewer or distiller. For christakes a LaRose is in our state senate.

[serpentracer]

unless you own a store and can prove to me what you pay for it and what you sell it for (what they tell you to) then you know nothing about what the markup is.   

when the brewery puts it in a bottle its a 300% markup on a  6pack at a store.  that's what the documentary was saying.   it was a business documentary not about beer.   I think the brewery sets the prices not the stores.

[zx3vfr]

unless you own a store and can prove to me what you pay for it and what you sell it for (what they tell you to) then you know nothing about what the markup is.

when the brewery puts it in a bottle its a 300% markup on a 6pack at a store. that's what the documentary was saying. it was a business documentary not about beer. I think the brewery sets the prices not the stores.

I don't think we are seeing this eye to eye. Look at it from an economic prospective, not just water, grain, hops, yeast and time. I could probably brew and bottle at home for $0.08 a serving. But I don't pay taxes, I don't have delivery trucks, I don't have employees, I don't have to pay for health care. Etc etc.

It could very well be a 3x mark up by the time it gets to you at your bar stool but it's not a 10x mark up.

And a liquor store/gas station is pretty much stuck using ohios minimum mark up because if they didn't no one would buy their alcohol from them because the store down the street would have it at state minimum.

Just because something is "cheap" to make. Doesn't make it a cheap product to get to a consumer.

My whole point is QSL is not making bank or pure profit on beer sales at bike nights. Because of all the reasons I have previously mentioned. The markup compared to liquor is marginal and add in security, extra insurance, hiring security and police, etc. etc. just because you make 3 dollars a can in a quick transaction doesn't mean that it's making you make bank. You have tons of other costs associated with it.

Economics yo.

Edited November 19, 2015 by zx3vfr

[redkow97]

I'm not trying to dispute the majority of what you're saying, but I disagree that the cost and margin on beer is the problem.  You're citing labor and insurance costs as the profit-killer.

 

Your example of liquor being more profitable doesn't diminish the profitability of beer.  The cost of labor to transport it and serve it aren't expenses that are inherent in selling/serving/re-selling beer, that's just the cost of running a bar.

 

Like I said, any time you want to pay me $3 for a 16 oz. PBR, I'll be happy to sell you one and pocket my $2 profit.   I understand that BARS and restaurants are not magic money machines, but that would be the case even if you're not serving alcohol.

 

I have run the numbers on opening a bar a few times (with friends who were also interested in the proposition of 'investing.')  The bottom line was that we would have to do the grunt work ourselves to avoid paying employees we didn't trust and losing our shirts.  Rent, liquor license, and insurance were killer - the margin on the product was not the issue.

Edited November 19, 2015 by redkow97

[Tonik]

Rent, liquor license, and insurance were killer - the margin on the product was not the issue.

 

Cyclical argument, classic OR.  If the margins were better on beer you could pay the rent, license and insurance.

[redkow97]

Cyclical argument, classic OR.  If the margins were better on beer you could pay the rent, license and insurance.

 

fair enough, I just struggle to find any other product where the markup is 300%, but it's hard to turn a profit.

[Tonik]

fair enough, I just struggle to find any other product where the markup is 300%, but it's hard to turn a profit.

 

I don't think beer margins are the issue either, that was just too easy to pass up.  I think in QSL's case it is kitchen issues, waste, theft or poorly run kitchens are what kill most restaurants. Not beverage margins.

[redkow97]

I have always been of the belief that FOOD sales are a break-even proposition after cost of the raw food, then paying someone to prepare it - drinks are where establishments should be making up money and profiting.

 

that is why McDonald's has a dollar menu.  The cheeseburger costs them $3 to produce, but the dollar drink you buy along with it only costs them $.05 to fill... The cup is literally more expensive than what they're filling it with.

[zx3vfr]

But, a well ran joint is going to have 25-40% food cost(10 dollar buger and fries costs about 3.33 max to make that's a 300% mark up as well. Think about all the salds they sell to house wives and hipsters trying to stay thin. Salad even with some cut up chicken on it is like 10% food cost at max (5% of $9.99).... 99 cents to make that salad. that's a huge profit, Personally I think, and with a little service industry knowledge of running a bar for a friend for a few months there is still way more money to be made anywhere than beer sales.

[sprocket226]

Not sure if this relates, but a "mom and pop" store opened up the road recently.

(Bunker Hill, for you folks around Ashtabula)

Guy that owns it doesn't have a Sunday beer license, he won't even open the doors.

When I was talking to him about it, he said almost all of his profit comes from beer.

Anyway, QSL in Sharon was fun, chain got "too big for it's britches" the one in Mentor is eh...

[Ron505]

I like QSL's menu and food.  I will miss it.