As long as the hospitality & retail industries are not quality of qualification based we can't expect customers to fork out fairly. I grew up in a place where being a shop assistant or a waiter had to attend trade college for 4 years. The end result was great service rather than just getting the customer to pick up some crappy pizza when a buzzer flashes in front of you or just lumping all kinds of food together in one bag. Again, as with so many other issues it is a mentality thing.

Indi, one the hardest trends to hit this industry, here in QLD at least, was the introduction of the pokies.

Pubs and clubs all of a sudden used a portion of the pokie revenue to subsidize cheap meals, which meant that to compete, outsiders had to come up with their own ways to minimize costs.

Rent, power etc was fixed and forever increasing, wages also, so the only thing left that could be trimmed was staff numbers/quality and food costs.

The worst rests for profit are quality seafood, with steak houses close by.

The large number of Itailian style rests has not happens by luck, more it has been a case of have to.

A gourmet pizza costs around $3.50 to make, a plate of risotto, less than $3.00 and pasta about the same.

Even Chinneese rests are suffering a bit now due mainly to the cost of fresh veg.

Of cause, if you choose to dine in a rest with entres at $23, and man ins at $48, you generally get great service.
the choice is yours.

rehctub,
I don't have any issue with your statement. I was in Cairns recently & went to several places where reasonable $10 to $15 good quality food was served. I observed that mainly middle-aged patrons were tourists. I realised that most of them ate their meal & left. I spoke with two couples afterwards & found that they, like I would have stayed to have a few relaxing drinks were it not for the idiotic head-banger band starting to make a noise which to which the sound of an engine would have been preferable. that management did itself a huge disfavour by having these three morons bagging & rattling away at their instruments. that happened in every establishment I visited. No wonder they don't make enough money.

Well indi, I hate to disagree, but it's the young one who these venues are targeting, because they are the ones who spend like there is no tomorrow.

Drinks is where the money is, not food.

Firstly, food requires cooks, kitchen hands, dish washers, waiters, and floor staff, whereas drinks require a bar person and perhaps a cellorman if required.

A $9 meal usually nets about 50 cents, whereas a $9 drink nets about $6 to $7.

No need to do the math.

It amazes me how BYO places survive, or more importantly, why they don't have a licence.

Now back to the noisy joints, how many young ones were ordering a meal or dining?

how many young ones were ordering a meal or dining?
rehctub,
that's the weird thing, there weren't many young ones so to speak. I was amazed at the failure of the management not to be able to read the mood & offer accordingly.
Same goes for the many junk shops. Every shop is selling the same junk, no wonder the money doesn't flow. Why would a chinese tourist want to spend $30 on a souvenir from Cairns when it was produced in China for a couple of bucks ? The Pier which was heralded as the shopping place in Cairns became a ghost house after just two years. They keep building new shopping centres which only serves to send another one broke. No-one wins & the taxpayer is constantly footing the bill.
Another killer in the hospitality industry is that insane ruling of drinking & dining times. You can't get a meal anywhere after 2 o'clock in the afternoon & before 6 in the evening. Those stupid licensing laws need to be gotten rid of if we want to improve our hospitality industry.
You have to provide hospitality if you want to participate in that industry.

Indi, with all due respect, Cains is a basket case at present.

As for the venue reading the people, I am with you to some degree.

My wife and I often comment on a band when they are playing what we consider great tunes, only to change to something nobody there at the time likes, resulting in the dance floor being instantly vacated.

Another time I was at a surf club watching my beloved broncos flogging Newcastle then, with about ten minutes left the band started to play and drowned out the footy, which by the way was being watched by about 100 or so people, most of which vacated when management refused to delay the band for ten minutes.

At the end of the day, I don't think most people understand just how hard this industry is.

Now as for shopping centers, yes, I fully agree.

Unfortunately, shopping centers are only governed by land use, nothing else.

Common sense would suggest that population, or at least, catchment numbers would be the critical trigger.

It's a dog eat dog world in retail.

Sadly though, many of those empty shops come with a broken family, loss of assets and even loss of lives in some cases, as it just become too hard for many.