Now I’m glad I missed that.
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Oops–that was apparently a different site discussing security … I think. It’s hard to keep all the threads/sites straight.
No, It was here. It was in response to link a few posts above about a restaurant in LA adding a charge to the bill for security. The post in question was certain to start an off topic, heated political argument so it was rightly hidden IMHO. If the site wants politics kept out of posts, that is.
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I’ll respectfully disagree. So many of these workers are youths. Many in HS and/or college, there to make ends meet. I don’t think it should be automatic that a “living wage” be mandatory for such instances. Be nice if my daughter could rake $20/hr for serving; but that price will possibly ruin her employer. $13 is better than $0.
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In economics, most of the labor market is defined as not one penny more than it takes to hire a worker the employer judges qualified to do the job. That is the mistake the California Legislature makes trying to single out “chain restaurants” for a higher minimum hourly rate as some sort of penalty for being large – you’re big so you can pay more. Wrong. The reason is that restaurant workers don’t view non-chain restaurant work as different from chain operations work. Thus, the California $20 minimum equally affects and squeezes non-chains as it does chains to the extent they are competing for the same labor pool.
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One thing that the press never discusses about the new minimum wage law in CA for fast food workers is that it also mandates that any exempt (i.e., non-hourly wage employee) must make twice the amount of the hourly wage worker.
So, in effect, a McDonald’s fast food restaurant owner not only has to pay her hourly wage workers more under the new law, but it also has to raise all the wages of its exempt staff (i.e., management etc.)
Don’t be surprised to see more and more self-serve/self-order kiosks at your favorite fast food chains, shorter hours, longer wait times (ironic for a “fast” food restaurant, no?), more store closures, and, yeah, higher prices (but we knew that already).
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$5.95 CAD before 13% sales tax for a scoop at Baskin Robbins in Ontario today!
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There are no decent independent ice cream/gelato shops in Ontario ? I would rank Baskin Robbins pretty much at the really low end of ice cream quality scale
In Toronto, there are some indie ice cream shops and many gelato shops.
London,Ontario, where I am today, is more like Colorado Springs. I hadn’t had a scoop from Baskin Robbins and I was in the mood. I was also in the burbs. In a city of 423 000, I can only think of one indie ice cream shop and it would have been a 30 minute drive, instead of the Baskin Robbins in front of me. 
I tried the Red Velvet Cheesecake flavour which was okay.
https://www.baskinrobbins.ca/product-profile/red-velvet-cheesecake/
I still like Baskin Robbins. I know there’s better out there, esp in the States.
I’d consider Baskin Robbins to be better quality than the Canadian mainstream local stuff (Shaw’s, London Ice Cream Company and Chapman’s).
2 flavours of gelato in a cup at an indie gelato shop in Toronto also runs $6 CAD.
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B&R uses to much artificial flavorings and HFCS that it always has such a strange flavor and mouthfeel
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I guess one thing to also consider is, that Canadian ice cream is inferior to French ice cream, German ice cream, Swiss ice cream and Italian gelato.
Another thing to consider, is that the Canadian market is much smaller than the US market.
America seems to have a much wider selection of products, and more high end products, available, because of the demand and population. My cousins in Los Gatos, Sonoma County , and in Cranberry Township in PA, all seem to have more options than I do for almost everything.
I haven’t eaten any Baskin Robbins in the States, ever, so I don’t know if the Canadian-made Baskin Robbins has better mouthfeel. I don’t have too many options when I’m in London.
I enjoyed scoops of Haagen Daz when I was a kid, visiting Seattle. I had a scoop at Van Leewen in NYC in 2018. That’s the extent of my knowledge of ice cream shops in the States.
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I have very small dataset on that but when we were in Vancouver and had several ice creams from independent shops (would have to look up names) the quality was really good. I think your statement might be too negative
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I’m sure there’s some great ice cream and gelato in Vancouver and Victoria. I get to California more often than I get to BC. I don’t think I’ve had ice cream in BC in 19 years. I went somewhere in Vancouver that had dozens of choices with a friend who was a local, but I can’t remember the name now.
Where I live in Ontario when I’m not in Toronto is a little more like mid-sized city Ohio or Michigan. 
We have an ice cream thread on the Toronto board.Ice Cream, gelato, etc. [Toronto] [GTA]
Agreed. Once you give $20 an hour to a lower skill labor, you have the jack the skilled ones up likewise. Now, everyone’s making better money with the same spending power as prior.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/junk-fees-restaurant-surcharges-19430871.php
can you do “resort fees” next please?
SFChronicle whined because of my ad blocker.
so I white-listed the site, and it still insists on subscribing . . .
once upon a really slow and dreary month, I tabulated the cost of ‘subscribing’ to the various places I go regularly and the odd ball places. when it hit $470+ a year, I quit making notes.
if these sites can’t make it on ad revenue, time to shut down and go home.
the point of ‘the internet’ now seems to be “fund me” . . .
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sorry, here is a summary for those hit by the paywall
Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle
[edited] (https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/junk-fee-law-restaurants-18447170.php) will apply to surcharges at restaurants. Starting July 1, under SB478, California restaurants will no longer be able to charge service fees — which have become an increasingly common tool to sustain higher wages for workers as food businesses move away from tips — and must instead fold them into menu prices, the attorney general’s office said. The law applies to all fees other than taxes
“All of these added fees just make it too expensive and it seems deceiving,” one reader wrote. “Tipping and additional fees upset me enough to cut back on eating [out],” wrote another. Stannard said the 1,000 employees across Bacchus’ nine restaurants could see their pay drop by as much as 25%, even if they raise prices to offset the difference. Restaurants will likely return to tips, which can fluctuate and aren’t always shared with back-of-house employees such as cooks and dishwashers. He’s also worried about the potential impact on private dining and catering, which typically use automatic fees and make up a third of his restaurants’ business.
“You’re talking about cocktails going from $16 to $26. I’m pretty sure that’s not what they intended,” he said, “but that is what’s going to happen.”
Owners fear the law, which allows consumers to sue businesses that continue using surcharges for at least $1,000 in damages, could spark class-action litigation — a “death sentence” for most independent restaurants, Stannard said.
Unlike restaurants, however, food delivery platforms like DoorDash got an exception. They do not have to “include in the menu price shown to the consumer the fees it charges for providing its services,” as stated in the bill text.
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CA is rather a bit on the nutty side…
on our last visit, CA had a min. $15/hr wage for waitstaff - any and all tips were the sole property of the server - they could not / may not be shared with any other individual no matter what.
city tax +
state tax +
the bill came with a 10% surcharge to provide healthcare to employees.
if you asked for a doggy bag, additional “plastic environmental” fees applied.
… cocktails going from $16 to $26.
any place that is jacking up costs 162% with “fees” - has issues.
