Do you learn from other’s failures?

We keep track closely with what’s going on in our economic world, locally and globally.

We’re seeing restaurants and bars in Hampton Roads fail and close weekly. And honestly, this is not a COVID-created recession issue.

We’re also seeing new restaurants and bars open weekly, almost daily. That’s a good economic indicator, right? Umm …

Tough examples:

• I watched a new establishment open this month after almost a year of renovation in a building that had just failed for a very solid local restaurant group. The reason for failing? No walk traffic. At all. Wouldn’t preliminary strategic research have uncovered this information for them? For this restaurant, the owners are new to the business and also made several critical financial errors that set them back during their pre-opening. Not a good start or a bright forecast for these good people.
• I saw an Inside Business feature on a restaurant that recently opened in our Downtown boundaries that features fried chicken and bourbon. On the surface that sounds okay, right? Not really. This bourbon-specialty establishment opened in the middle of a Virginia ABC-induced strangle-hold on bars being able to acquire popular bourbon whiskeys. Yes. True. Makes no economic sense. <– let the political conversations begin.

Do you keep your ear to the street to understand your business and economic surroundings? It may be worth a few minutes of reading each day to expose your brain cells outside your bubble.