Here's one reason small restaurants 'fail'.

Someone has a vision of opening a 'ggod' restaurant. They either like to cook, think they'll make a lot of money, or have a solid business plan and have found what they think is a good location,etc...

Almost all of the folks who open a restaurant want to serve the 'best' food they can. No one starts out thinking 'I can buy this cheap crap and then pawn it off on the public as good food.'

Many start out actualy going to the produce marts and butcher shops and picking out the fresh food they want to prepare....

So, usually a new place has decent food quality, and if the service is good, folks will come there a lot and they will prosper....

Then, it starts...In walks good old Bill (or Bob, John, or whomever), a food 'wholesaler' who will 'deliver' their food right to the back door..and save them money...

They insist on 'quality' and for the next few months/years maybe, they maintain it...

But they are bombarded with other salesfolks. ALL of them trying to sell them food products and take their business away from Bill (or whichever food wholesale place they are currently dealing with). To do this, they offer to 'save' them more money....but to do this they have to convince them that the quality is decent...

Eventually, the restauranteur will 'settle' on a wholesaler that he/she likes...and build a relationship with them. Then, they start getting..'this is cheaper, it will save you money, and your customers won't notice a thing'...or' you can cut the portions size back, just a little, no one will notice'. And over time, they start taking shortcuts here and there...packaged sauces, because it saves time and money...precut meat 'porions'...cheaper and saves time...'cheaper' cuts of meat, lower 'graded' beef and chicken...but the quality decline shows to some of their customers, who stop coming...then they HAVE to save money, since the profits are dropping, and it's always believed that the way to save is to 'spend less' (No one ever seems to consider upping quality and value so they can EARN MORE). Thus the decline in quality spirals out of control, more people have bad experiences and stop coming...restaurant fails.

It happens so often in this manner I'm surprised that the industry hasn't stepped in with some kind of intervention or training to help prevent it.

We eat out a lot. We like to try the 'new' places that pop up, and many are excellent at first...but eventually... we stop eating there.

Buddy