re: Waffle House workers are the latest group to strike, requesting $25 per hour

Define Market Price.


Youre flailing

What factors determine market prices? What happens if a company cannot meet those requirements?

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How to say "I have never worked in a kitchen in my life" without saying "I have never worked in a kitchen in my life"



Lay it out for me. Tell me all the high-level intellectual tasks that go into being a cook at Waffle House.

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You said it again.

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Lay it out for me. Tell me all the high-level intellectual tasks that go into being a cook at Waffle House.

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Showing up on time three days out of five.

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....and somewhat sober.

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The low end labor pool is usually ex cons and halfway house residents. Sobriety might be asking too much.

Restaurant work is notoriously a drug ridden atmosphere.

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What if production cost exceeds market price ? Does market price rise to compensate, or does the transaction just not happen?

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If production costs exceed market price you lose money IF you sell or you do not sell. Either way you have lost money. This is EXACTLY why production costs do not impact market price...if your production costs exceed what the market will bear you can't sell...if your costs are substantially lower you have a competitive advantage....

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If production costs exceed market price you lose money

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Market price =/= price charged to consumer. You are lost. Seems like youre mixing micro and macro issues.

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Market price =/= price charged to consumer. You are lost. Seems like youre mixing micro and macro issues.

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"What Is Market Price?


The market price is the current price at which an asset or service can be bought or sold. The market price of an asset or service is determined by the forces of supply and demand. The price at which quantity supplied equals quantity demanded is the market price."

That is from Investopedia but it is exactly the same verbiage used in every accepted economic text book that has ever been published or used in any school anywhere there is NO mention of production costs because production costs have no impact on market price.

Everyone understands that there is a market price for real estate. That is the price that consumers will pay for a piece of real estate and it is based entirely on demand for real estate and supply of real estate.

Lets say that contractor A can build a house for $100 a square foot and the market price for a house in the area is $120 a square foot that contractor can sell that house for 20% more than it cost them to build it.


Now consider contractor B who does not have the experience, tools and contacts that contractor A has. Contractor B's costs to build a house is $125 a square foot due to this. The demand is the same, the supply is the same....and the market price for contractor B's house is the same as the market price for contractor A's house. The difference is that when A sells he makes 20%, when contractor B sells he has paid the buyer 4.17% to buy the house....B is not going to remain in business long at that rate. The market price is established by supply and demand, not production costs.

Even when production costs go up across an entire industry, say when lumber prices go up, there is NO instant correlation between an increase in market price because the increased price will drive down demand thus keeping prices from increasing. If, however, a contractor had a supply of lumber at a lower price, they could continue to build and meet the lower demand that would exist at the price the market would allow...based on supply and demand. Not production costs. Production costs determine what an item must be sold for to make it viable, that number does not correspond in any manner with what consumers will pay for the product.


IN the initial posts in this thread there was some concern expressed that an increase in labor costs at waffle house would drive up the market price of services similar to those waffle house delivers. This is not the case. It will indeed cause waffle house to manage costs in some manner....cut staff, automate, raise prices, go out of business....but it does not mean that Huddle House has to do a fricking thing. The market price for eggs and bacon and waffles and coffee has not changed, waffle houses production costs have changed.

Were the federal government to step in and establish the same minimum wage for ALL businesses delivering the same services as waffle house and it drove up production costs for all producers there would not be an automatic increase in the market price of the service being sold...if supply dropped because fewer producers existed and demand stayed the same market price would increaase. If demand dropped and supply remained the same market prices would drop. If both went up market prices would go up. If both went down market prices would go down. If production costs go up market price is not and will never be impacted UNTIL supply and demand is impacted because supply and demand is what drives market price, not the cost of production.

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production costs have no impact on market price.

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Doesn't classical economic theory suggest the opposite?

RogerTheShrubber would probably know the answer to that, would he care to comment?

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tell me more about the restaurant industry …

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What do you wanna know?

The statistics on rates of burn injuries and cutting injuries are readily available on google for your perusal. Don't forget to check out lifting injuries as well.

I can really only comment on pizzas in terms of personal experience. The most I ever seen one guy do by himself was around 100 pies in one hour, sustained over a period of about 2-3 hours. UGA had just beaten LSU at home, in 1998, UGA fans were hungry AF. It was so bad employees from the same chain in Georgia were offering to help free of charge.

Please, share your stories, you probably got a lot more to offer.