The IHOP indicator in South Puget Sound - Econ and Pol

[junker]

Ok, so the folks around here are not so sophisticated. I had to take the MIL out to sign some papers and finalize a transaction. As we both rise early, I suggested we go get some breakfast somewhere. She wanted to go to IHOP. I would prefer the SPAR resturant or Otto's downtown OLympia as long as we were out and about...but she is 73 and like lots of folks around here, just loves them IHOP belgian waffles. Now I don't really like IHOP, being a vegedude and all, but what the hell, she enjoys it and so we went.

We were there for almost 2 hours. It was scary.

What was scary was that during the entire 2 hours there were never more than 14 customers in the entire place. One has to know that IHOP has always been so busy that usually (the 2 or 4 times a year I go there with inlaws) you wait ten or twenty minutes to get a table at almost anytime of the day. This place was empty... I think it is rated for 290 people...

I assumed it was competition, like maybe a newer IHOP opened further out in Lacey or something... so I asked. The waitress said that this was a pretty good crowd for a weekday 'these days'. They have reduced staff by not hiring new people as other left, and she said that sometimes our 14 person crowd would be good Sunday late morning attendance. Her take is that even those people who have jobs are not going out 'cause the mood' changed.

I agree. Here in the PNW (at least in the South end from Oly up) the social mood is grim. Down right depressing. Even on sunny days...

Now, about almost a year ago, I was in the same IHOP, made a comment to my wife about the pee-Resident, and damn near ended up in a fight with some bible-toters in the booth next door who were offended that I called "god's president" a lying sack-o-shit.....

today, not a peep when rabid-anti-bushie MIL went off on a 30 minute spew about the scum....some of the people looked our way, and I thought to keep a coffee pot handy to defend myself (MIL tough old bird who can take care of herself), but no....no hassles at all.

still, I was seriously scared by that empty room. In all the years, maybe decades that IHOP has been out there, I have never been in it, or driven by it when it was not chock full of people scarfing down them waffles....

Bad sign.

Good luck to us all. Looks to be a real rough ride ahead.

[kurtyboy]

1. Jeez--During a session even?

When the Legislature is in session, a place like that should have all sorts of people in it--people who come to Olympia to testify or lobby or just listen. This sounds bad.

I'm with you on The Spar--far greater food and a genuine feeling of Old Tyme Olympia.

[Newsjock]

2. Or, perhaps it's just IHOP in free-fall

I can't remember the last time I was in one, but it was easily more than a year ago. My take was that the prices had risen (for that type of eatery) and, more notably, their drink prices had risen even higher, to the point where I was paying something like $1.79 for a glass of stinkin' iced tea -- something like one-third of my total tab.

My take on the whole IHOP experience was "poor value for money."

That said, however, Olympia's economy is in a sorry state, what with the brewery all gone and the state budget problem. And it's not made any better by a local lapdog press that never has a discouraging word for deep-pocketed developers and big business. "You didn't want that conference center? What kind of commie pinko freak are you, anyway?" :)

[54anickel]

3. Another great post Junker. Maybe you should take up that suggestion

about writing that folks here at DU are throwing at you.

Good luck to you.