You don’t really have to be a genius or an MBA graduate to conduct a simple feasibility study and see if opening a restaurant or a cafe or any business for that sake at a specific location is a good choice or not. Unfortunately, very few people do that in Lebanon and then they curse their luck when they go bankrupt and have to close down.
If an arguile place opens, 4 or 5 other arguile places open right next to it. If a burger place is doing well, they open 10 other burger places on the same street. The worst part is that no one even bothers to offer competitive prices anymore. On the contrary, the new mentality is to up the prices and claim they offer a better quality which is not true most of the time.
Take for example this very special offer I spotted the other day at a small restaurant. Taouk + French Fries and Coleslaw for 10,000LL! How is that a good offer? The place is located in a deserted alley next to a hospital, was almost empty of course and there were a couple of tables smoking arguile and playing backgammon. The worst part is that Malak el Taouk is 200 meters from this restaurant and offers you a huge Taouk platter with fries, coleslaw, ketchup and garlic for almost the same price.
I really don’t know why some Lebanese are so keep on throwing their money away to be honest. Here’s another place on the Kaslik maritime road that’s been puzzling me for quite some time. It’s now a trading company, but before that it was a car showroom, a sushi place, a poker place, a shop that sells dairy products and a Shawarma place.
Keen*
Spot on article. Suppliers also raise prices because consumers reward them for doing so as they exchange brownie points for increased social status. People lack the courage to do otherwise. As for everyone opening restaurants, they just assume they can sit down and collect money, which is just insulting the marketplace as being stupid. The only stupid people turns out to be them, because the marketplace automatically punishes them with an equilibrium excess profit of $0.
That is the main problem with Lebanese people, they pretend like theyre born with innate skills and can open anything and succeed at it. Well no, a restaurant is a very complicated business from all aspects and if you dont do the proper study and planning ahead of time then it will bite you in the ass. Ive seen many people open a restaurant, make a menu and price it without even conducting a market study, without even calculating the proper food cost and without taking into consideration all other expenses.
It makes me sad to see so many restaurants opening and closing just a few months later, and trust me its a whole lot of them.
It just hurts my heart to listen to people who have no plan for the future just say “maximum biftah mat3am aw pub w byimshel 7al”.
My advice to them is that if you havent done it before, get a proper consultant or dont bother doing it at all.
The core problem is that Lebs think that one can simply open a restaurant in the middle of nowhere and make proffit. No consultancy and no feasibility study and no intelligence or common sense.