At least where I'm from, they're just fronts for laundering cash from the mainland. They're made for losing money.

Depends on size of staff, and how they acquire the ingredients.
If they don't marinate meat themselves, but trust a supplier, the same with a lot of spices, they will barely run in the green.
Their margins tend to be terrible.

>>1138276
I've worked in a Chinese restaurant and I can tell you one thing that the money they make really not worth the time and effort they put in. Don't know how they do it but they did.

>>1138276
Probably a wonTON

Incredibly low margins, high volume output. Everyone who's not the owner makes about minimum wage -- usually paid in cash without taxes.

I don't believe they're used for laundering money, because most of these restaurants really don't keep accounting records/books. Plus most people who run them aren't known to be economically 'wealthy' not even in China. (usually extremely - conservative rural farmers)

If there's any advantage to Chinese restaurant -- besides the price, is that they aren't the typical run of the mill cafeteria which depends on Sysco vendor. I'd say half the food service companies in the US depend on Sysco or US Foods.

>>1138640
This. I'm not sure how they put up with 12hr workday for so little money.

I'm sure they aren't money laundering fronts.

Shitloads of money. Believe that.

You got to understand the Chinese mindset and guanxi. It's really important for Chinese to have relationships with each other. The property is often owned by the restaurant owner, or owned by another Chinese person. So their rent costs are already a little different than a regular restaurant. They can staff from inside their own communities. So they might pay their employees less, but their employees have other benefits. If you own a McDonald's franchise you don't go to a former employees wedding and gift them $1000. By owning a restaurant, they can possibly give out work visas for other Chinese to come in, or they can have a revolving door of ownership, where every couple years a Chinese comes in on an investor visa. In a industry with a lot of cash payments, there can be a lot of skimming. So even if it's not laundering money, owners can report a lot less for their taxes.

If you look at Confucius, you've part of a never ending chain of your family. You're just the link between the present and the future. So in the west the restaurant is just the current step, with forcing your kids to be in a profession being the next one.

>>1138815
It also depends on location. A good chinese restaurant in a busy location can rake it in from lunchtime to late evening all day every day.

Banquets and stuff, chinese people will spend a lot of money at the restaurant. Ordering all the good stuff and loads of alcohol.

>>1138604

This. I have one near my house where the food is delicious. I would be suprised if they get 50 customers a day.

And yet they stay open.

>>1138815

What about the ones owned by white people? They still to emproy Chinese natives. There's one in my town that is awesome, but always weirded me out that a big white guy is the owner

Are they breaking six figures tho?

>>1138276
idk, but kinda feel bad for some desu, some owners can be dicks, but some, you can genuinely bond with, i see them as a old mom & pops store which is why i support them most the time, most will give you extra shit or small discounts if your re-occurring customer & even giving a dime in a tip jar, they often give you a genuine thank you. Feels bad desu.

>>1138990
A lot of the restaurants that are around me got rent for cheap, or have the whole family working there (almost no labor expenses).

For example, this Indian guy & his wife & son own a Subway franchise and he works there like over 12 hours a day. He said he makes like $120K/year after everything.

I think the average subway makes like 80K a year or something, so family working there always helps.

This makes me wonder. Aren't the margins for pretty much any restaurant going to be fairly shit no matter what you do? Why would anyone go into the restaurant business aside from having a dream of owning a restaurant?

>>1140099
Yup, that's true. The margins for the restaurant biz are extremely low except for those in fine dining. Even then, you have to serve some damn nice food (and customer service because this is the US), to justify that high price - rent location.

>>1140097
Indians operate on an entirely different premise from East Asians and will not work as nearly as hard to get the money they need. So their ethnic Indian restaurants will often cost more than a comparable American diner. Likewise, Indians will do whatever is the easiest route for money.

>>1138815
That's sick.

>>1140097

How much would they earn if they hire employees tho?