[mjburgess]

Profit in most industries is a few percent, esp. retail/food which are often c. 1%.

The markets are highly competitive, and consumers will compare two stores: A, B and choose the cheaper.

[knute]

I think there's a lot more that goes into where someone chooses to eat than price, otherwise Taco Bell would be putting Chipotle out of business.

As explained above, I don't take it as a given that increased employee wages require increased prices.

[mjburgess]

Then have a look into how much a taco bell franchise makes: https://sharpsheets.io/blog/taco-bell-franchise-costs-profit...

It's 15% "profit" on paper, but a franchiser is typically in debt for the first 12 years of the store before they make any "net profit".

So we're talking an industry where most of the so-called "capitalists" are in debt.

This is a hyper-competitive market place, and one play only adding on %s to their products will be a hit to their competitiveness.

They dont decided prices, the market does.