https://www.gofundme.com/save-the-1940-roast-grill-raleigh

Quote :

"FROM: George, HOT-DOG-GEORGE, to most of you! ...Hello to my dear friends, customers and family; we are all ONE! "The Roast Grill, Hot Weiners" restaurant has recently had Huge repair needs, largely refrigeration, flooring, plumbing, electrical, etc. Total costs are CRAZY; the premises is now 78 years old (business) and the house/grill building was built in 1920-ish. The home was bought by my grandfather, George Charles in the middle 1920s. It is slowly getting to be an impossibility to cover the costs of nearly EVERYTHING on the premises falling apart at the same time! WE are asking for a bit of help financially, from our beloved friends/family/customers ! SO that we can continue to provide the Greatest Tasting Hot-Weiner Chili Dogs on the Planet! ...and to live forever, currently Raleigh's oldest original family owned business!"

Also, hello thewalfwob it has been a spell

[Edited on August 1, 2018 at 2:08 PM. Reason : ffs]

8/1/2018 2:07:22 PM

What is a bank loan? for 50k, Alex

8/1/2018 2:26:38 PM

Damn, called out in the comments already:

Quote :

"Gotta ask... considering this is and has been a solid cash business, no mortgage etc... where has all the money gone?"

8/1/2018 2:30:24 PM

people are the worst

I was very happy to donate

8/1/2018 2:37:56 PM

I mean you can say people are the worst, whatever, but it is definitely a fair question.

8/1/2018 2:40:31 PM

Donate, or do not. There is no try.

8/1/2018 2:44:55 PM

Hello.

8/1/2018 2:45:06 PM

Hello.

8/1/2018 2:46:53 PM

Indeed.

8/1/2018 2:50:58 PM

8/1/2018 3:28:28 PM

I thought I had already donated via buying a fuck ton of dogs over the years.

8/1/2018 3:51:29 PM

8/1/2018 4:13:12 PM

Quote :

"where has all the money gone?""

Definitely not toward ketchup

8/1/2018 4:41:17 PM

Yeah I'm not gonna go somewhere that won't give me ketchup.. They can burn in HELLLLLL!!!

But for real, run your business better... Or get a loan

8/1/2018 5:19:37 PM

I will never donate through gofundme. Especially to a business. GFY.

8/1/2018 5:26:47 PM

I like the place, but I'm not gonna give them money if hot dogs and adorable little bottles of coke aren't involved.

8/1/2018 6:55:35 PM

So is this paerabol's place??

8/1/2018 7:24:16 PM

^^^^ I'll fight you. You and your ketchup can DIAF.

8/1/2018 11:58:51 PM

All the Yelp reviews are defensive. Sure, they don't actually meet their customers' needs or serve a good product, but they've been in business so long, they must be doing something right! Right?!?! NOSTALGIA! QUAINT! STAPLE!

But, seriously...

Quote :

"Gotta ask... considering this is and has been a solid cash business, no mortgage etc... where has all the money gone?"

Probably medical bills. That's where all our money goes.

8/2/2018 6:04:30 AM

This cat here:

Quote :

"Don’t you own your own building with no rent and a cash business where is the money? Not even mentioning all the free advertising you get all the time. Sounds like you want free money."

While "where is the money" is a valid question, "how much money could there possibly have been" is also a great one to ask. Do some back-of-the-envelope math to figure out the upper limit of that place's revenue, and the question goes from "where is the money" to "why the fuck haven't you sold the building yet."

8/2/2018 7:36:25 AM

Well how much does a hot dog meal cost? $35? $100?

They probably sent paerabol to school for nuclear engineering paid in full with cash, bought him a house on lake Norman, and uhh that's all the info I can steal from his bio

8/2/2018 7:55:31 AM

Never heard of this place

8/2/2018 8:13:49 AM

donations aren't going to save them if they can't afford maintenance costs

8/2/2018 9:01:57 AM

^

Just about every restaurant I've seen asking for donations on GoFundMe have eventually failed even after a successful GoFundMe campaign.

How much are their hot dogs? I haven't been in years. 2.25? Say they get 100 patrons at lunch, and another 50 throughout the afternoon. I'm making these numbers up, I have no idea what their patronage is like. 50% of those patrons probably buy at least two dogs, so we're looking at 450/day on hot dogs alone. I have no idea what their beverages are like, but I've heard it costs like .30 for every 2.00 drink you get, but let's not worry about profit, we'll just look at revenue. So let's just say that each patron (150) buys a drink. This is generous because some are going to be like me, and work out in their mind that water is healthier even after eating hot dogs. That's another 300.

So this cat's revenue is like 750 a day based on my completely made up numbers. After figuring in costs, it just doesn't seem like a viable revenue stream for a business paying downtown taxes.

Anyone more familiar with the costs/revenue/profit of a restaurant, please chime in.

8/2/2018 10:02:59 AM

Should get into laundering money

8/2/2018 10:12:36 AM

Don't get me wrong, I mean I would donate, might do it just to keep a little bit of old Raleigh alive.

Hell I donated to save this crumbling institution. Why not save another!

8/2/2018 10:24:04 AM

I don’t think they get nearly as many as 150 a day. the number is probably much closer to 50.

8/2/2018 10:47:31 AM

Add craft beer or move it to a cart

8/2/2018 10:55:53 AM

while I do appreciate what the place has to offer and believe that Raleigh needs to keep some of its original establishments to maintain character and unique identity, I do not believe saving the Roast Grill through this Go Fund Me is the right thing.

It's like the wolf web of Raleigh. One day that place is going to go. The environment in which it was built and has thrived is not the same any more. If not damage, then either reduced revenues from changing clientele (food is trending more upscale, especially among the crowds moving into downtown), and/or decision to sell the building when one of them passes (inevitable).

Any funding just unnecessarily prolongs the inevitable.

8/2/2018 11:13:04 AM

if they installed a double drive thru, you people would be all about it

8/2/2018 11:29:23 AM

They're open 11-4. I'd be surprised if they only get 50ish customers per day.

Hot Dogs are $2.50, people often get 3 or more at a time, and they do sell beer.

Quote :

" I have no idea what their beverages are like, but I've heard it costs like .30 for every 2.00 drink you get"

They sell glass bottles of coke, primarily...the margins you're talking about are probably for fountain drinks


[Edited on August 2, 2018 at 11:53 AM. Reason : I agree revenue is an issue]

8/2/2018 11:47:33 AM

I wonder if they've considered staying open during dinner hours. Maybe throw a "save the wieners" event where 10% of the proceeds goes to prostate cancer research. Add stretch goals to their gofundme campaign like adding spiral cuts to the hot dogs as an added menu option. Or even issue a "ketchup pass" for people that donate large amounts.

[Edited on August 2, 2018 at 11:59 AM. Reason : Either way...I assume their "labor costs" have consumed the bulk of their operating expenses. ]

8/2/2018 11:58:23 AM

After reading about how the I Love NY Pizza guys skimmed over a million bucks during a year or two selling pizza, my assumptions about how rich you can get selling cheap food have been turned upside down. I'm willing to bet the hot dog place has made some decent money over the years.

Quote :

"cover the costs of nearly EVERYTHING on the premises falling apart at the same time!"

Who could've imagined putting off routine maintenance and repairs for years could lead to this?

8/2/2018 1:08:04 PM

Quote :

"I Love NY Pizza guys skimmed over a million bucks during a year or two selling pizza, my assumptions about how rich you can get selling cheap food have been turned upside down"

NY Pizza's volume is silly compared to this hot dog place.

[Edited on August 2, 2018 at 1:36 PM. Reason : campaign is about to top $10k]

8/2/2018 1:26:19 PM

NY Pizza had three locations too

8/2/2018 3:01:30 PM

And it's also fucking pizza you could buy with a credit card.

8/2/2018 3:49:52 PM

^ Not sure what you're getting at. Pizza and hotdogs cost about the same in my mind. Plus they were skimming from cash payments.

Point is, if you can make so much money selling pizza in 3 locations that you can skim $1.3M bucks over the course of just a year, I'm thinking this hot dog joint could've come up with $17K for repairs over the past several years.

[Edited on August 2, 2018 at 3:59 PM. Reason : ...]

8/2/2018 3:58:12 PM

If it goes out of Business, FLEX should purchase the Hot Weiners Sign

8/2/2018 4:30:20 PM