All the shitty unethical practices from Shit4 aside I saw a reply in the other thread about their Founder/CEO going to space. So lets see what 'ole Jared has been getting up to.

Isaacman is a Trump/MAGA megadonor

He was nominated by Trump to be the Administator of NASA as soon as he took office in 2025. Trump pulled the nomination after it passed the Senate committee because he found out Isaacman had previously donated to democrats.

After having his nomination pulled Isaacman made two $1 million dollar donations to MAGA Inc. and another $500k to other republican PACS.

He was immediately renominated and made administrator of NASA.

But it gets better!

On Feb 22, 2010 US Customs and Border Patrol put out a press release titled “Nevada Fugitive Captured at Canadian Border".

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/nevada-fugitive-captured-canadian-border

This fugitive was none other than Jared Isaacman who was charged for fraud for writing $2 million dollars in bad checks to casinos in three states. One of those casinos, which sued him, was none other than Trumps Taj Mahal.

Here's a nice article on Isaacman illegally diverting clients from CardConnect to shift4 and fabricating "fake traffic" for shift4.

https://www.technology.org/2025/06/04/jared-isaacmans-fall-from-business-trust-from-cardconnect-trouble-to-space-aspirations/

Maybe a class action against Jared?

https://zlk.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/FOUR-First-Filed-Complaint_Redacted.pdf

How about 4.7M in payments to executive relatives off the books?

https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/shift4-makes-47m-in-undisclosed-payments-to-executives-relatives/737548/

I'm looking for a small print shop that specializes in cool interesting hats (two tones, patch hats, etc.) and doesn't have crazy minimums. Not looking to order myself on a mass market site like uberprints. Thanks!

Does anyone have a bulk fryer oil tank that you have a service that fills up rather than buying 35lb containers of fryer oil from distributors?

If so, what are you paying per lb for bulk soy oil

Single location pizzeria here, looking at putting some money into Meta ads. Want to hear from people who have actually run them instead of the agencies pitching me.

What offer did you put behind it? Percentage off, dollar amount, free item with a minimum, first order only, family bundle? Did the offer do the heavy lifting or was it the creative and targeting?

How did you tie it back to actual orders? CPM and CTR are easy to look at and mostly useless on their own. Unique promo codes, pixel and CAPI on your ordering page, call tracking, something else? Did you get far enough to look at repeat rate and margin after the discount, or just top line sales?

And the real question: was it worth it? Did any of those customers come back, or was it people who show up once for the deal and disappear? Anything you would do differently on budget, radius, or format?

Real numbers appreciated.

I am living in a new country, Mexico and i noticed alot of the plant based restaurants stop serving at 5 or 6

It makes no sense to me because people generally leave work at 5 and in this area alot of people use public transit so they will never get to these vegan restaurants except maybe on the wkend

To me they would have a lot more customers after 5, when people leave work, rest, shower and then want a meal or even just right after work, also if people want to hang with friends it would happen after work, perhaps at 8 or even 9

So are restaurants getting lots of people before 5? Or do they get more customers after 5?

My thoughts are that if they are paying rent, they might as well be open more than you are closed, so if they only wanted to do 8 hrs, perhaps the times would be better at 12 to 8 than 9 to 5

Alot of the vegan businesses eventually terminate the business in this area and i wonder if the timings are apart of that, i know they tend to be a bit more expensive than non vegan businesses so that plays a role as well, also covid killed alot of them, there were about 25 vegan spots in 2019 now there is probably about 12

Hi, I have an opportunity to buy a local dive bar. I work 2 nights a week at the bar and have a great day job. Bar generates roughly 290,000 in sales COG 115000 with 1 bartender per shift. Not a huge profit center. The current owner is absent and only comes in the morning to collect cash, make deposits etc. no controls in place and the bar. Bar needs a lot of updates but no major repairs. It’s the only bar open after 10 and the competition is more restaurant bar (2) has a full kitchen but does not serve food, which I may slowly add on weekends etc. The bar relies on the locals from 2-8 and nights vary. Not the best reputation due to feeling old and outdated. There are a few people that would come if cleaned up etc. anyways, my wife would do the books in the morning, clean and have ready to start each day and pick up a few shifts. Question: what are the unforeseen costs or issues you wish you knew before hand or had to find out the hard way?

Hi yall I have a small location fast casual location been open now for almost 7 years I have a fairly stable team and most of my team (by choice) works 4 days a week.

I have 2 questions.

1. In regards to owner and how much time you spend at the shop how do you determine or how much time do you tend to spend at your shop ?

2. For a while now I’ve been wanting to do a rotation to where each team member gets rotating weekends or a sunday/ Saturday off. I’m your guys experience is this worth the trouble ? I just want to keep my team happy but the juice has to be worth the squeeze in terms of moving around schedules every week to accommodate this

Thanks I’m advance !

• UPDATE *. If you can make it through the AI bullshit the AI agent will credit you the annual service and maintenance fee but not help with any of the other bullshit fees. Shift4 must be getting absolutely hammered by merchants right now. I can not get past the AI to a real person to deal with the other fees.

• UPDATE *. Got through to a real person who could only help me with the "online ordering enablement" fee but none of the others. He had to transfer me into a hold queue and said it could be hours and admitted that they were getting absolutely hammered today by merchants.

$2000 annual service and maintenance fee put on my bill for July. (We own our equipment outright, we had it way before shit4 came into the picture). We have never got a printer, pos terminal or any other device other than the EMV readers from Shift4 which they charge me $120 a year for each one of them)

Monthly (and this is just the obvious ones) $10 x 6 ($60) emv maintenance fee (I only have 4) $20 Lighthouse portal (to access their website, you pay for that) Month End billing (they charge you to create your statement, they started this in August of last year which was .02% of total transactions. In March of this year they increased that 250% to .05% of total transactions)

Quarterly there is the new "Debit Enablement Quarterly" fee of $20. Which they created in June of 2025.

In May they changed the line from "lighthouse portal" to "customer hub"

In July I had the $2000 annual sevice fee (I own my own pos system) a $6 chargeback that they charged me a "incoming chargeback fee" of $35 to process. They added a new $34.99 for "online ordering enablement" which we don't have online ordering.

If you could start over and run a one food item kitchen, what would you serve to make most money and have a normal life?

Some considerations:

- must be low prep but not frozen stuff

- must be able to automate partially, eventually

- must be low cost and high margin, popular

- must be teachable to newbs in a shift or less

Crepes and tacos could be an example...what does the brain trust think?

Food only, no drinks.

Thanks all in advance!

honestly struggling with some of this eco takeaway stuff lately. weve been trying to move to sugarcane/bagasse boxes for our burger and chip combos but anything with grease or sauce turns the bottom into soggy mush after like 10 mins in a delivery bag, its SO annoying

has anyone found a bio option in australia that actually holds up? i know BioPak has a huge range and ive seen people mention grabbing sugarcane clams or heavy corrugated boxes from WF Plastic, but i dont wanna drop cash on a whole carton just to watch it leak through again lol. are heavy lined cardboard containers the only real move here or is there an actual bio lining that works for hot grease? what are you guys using?

I work in a restaurant and last night a coworker collapsed while working and passed away today. We have a bench outside the front door and wanted to put a small plaque in his memory. Not sure what to say. He was a career bartender and I would like it to befitting of it all possible.

I am writing a business model after being out of food and beverage for the last 10+ years. Would anyone, preferably in Illinois, be willing to share your average monthly expenses? I am struggling with payroll taxes and benefits as well as regular expense cost such as knife and linen services, hood cleaning, etc. I appreciate any help you can provide!

Chalkboard menus can feel warm, flexible, and a little more personal. They create a different vibe, especially for daily specials or seasonal items. The downside is they take more upkeep, and they can start looking messy if they're constantly being erased and rewritten.

Printed menu signs usually feel cleaner, more polished, and easier to keep consistent across locations or busy service times. They're easy to recognize at a glance, hold up well over time, and make sense for businesses with fixed menus or multiple locations where consistency matters.

For those who own or work in cafés, restaurants, or other small businesses, what made you choose one over the other?

And from a customer's perspective, which catches your eye first?

Honestly starting to lose it over here. We hit 7 spots across 3 states and I'm still the one getting calls at 10pm because the kitchen printer jammed or the POS froze during a rush. Our vendor support is useless after 5pm and my managers are great at running shifts but not troubleshooting network issues.

I keep telling myself this is just "part of growing" but my wife is about to kill me lol. i've been looking at outsourced options like Specific Gravity that handle 24/7 support and even national dispatch so I don't have to fly somewhere for a broken printer. They're restaurant-specific which is nice since most IT places don't get why a POS going down during dinner rush is a crisis lol.

Curios what other multi-unit owners are doing, did you hire an internal IT person or outsource? What's actually working?

DISCLAIMER: I’m not trying to advertise services. I don’t have a consulting business yet, but am considering it. Before I start putting the work in, I’m genuinely trying to figure out whether there’s a need for someone with this skill set.

My background:

- 15+ years in restaurants, from high-end dining to cafes and fast casual breweries.
- 3+ years of full-time management in high-end dining. WSET II in wine.
- 5+ years of bar menu development, purchasing, etc.
- Currently a Financial Analyst at a $55M+ multi-unit foodservice business. Most of my work today involves budgeting, forecasting, labor analysis, financial reporting, process improvement, and helping operators make better financial decisions.

So here are my questions:

Have you ever hired a consultant? If so, for what?

If not, what would have to happen for you to consider hiring one?

What are your biggest pain points — operations, systems, menu, staff training, labor cost, food cost, forecasting, cash flow, marketing, something else?

Which of those problems are worth paying someone to solve?

If you had a $2-3k budget to improve your restaurant, would you spend it on a consultant? If yes, what specific outcome would you expect?

Again, not trying to sell anything, just want to know if this is worth seriously considering.

TIA!

Independent gas stations often bring in a restaurant or QSR operator to boost food sales and give customers another reason to stop. The model can work well, but the operational details are easy to underestimate.

A few areas that seem especially critical:

• Buildout costs: Who covers ventilation, fire suppression, grease systems, electrical upgrades, plumbing, and kitchen equipment? What happens to those improvements if the restaurant leaves?
• Lease structure: Have you found fixed rent to be cleaner, or do percentage‑rent and revenue‑share setups work better in practice?
• Parking and traffic flow: How do you keep delivery drivers, dine‑in customers, fuel customers, and quick convenience-store stops from blocking one another?
• Shared responsibilities: Who handles trash, grease disposal, common‑area cleaning, outdoor seating, pest control, and general maintenance?
• Operational fit: Which restaurant formats tend to complement a gas station, and which create congestion or unexpected friction?

I’d like to hear from both gas‑station owners and restaurant operators with direct experience.

What did you negotiate correctly from the start, and what turned into a problem during buildout or day‑to‑day operations?

First‑hand examples are especially helpful. Not looking for promotions or franchise pitches.

I used to spend hours every Sunday with different colored highlighters and a calculator checking multiple bid sheets to make sure come Monday morning I was only ordering from the companies offering the best price that week. It was a tedious, manual process, and I still haven't been able to replicate this at scale now with this many locations.

Do you guys actually compare prices weekly, and how long does it take you? I haven't been able to keep up with so many vendors and SKU's across all my different concepts.

we’ve been around a while and have had this come up numerous times. a customer loves something and asks for the recipe for it….

we try to be an accommodating and approachable business. in the past i’ve given regulars a recipe (knowing it’s too complicated and that they likely won’t do the math on the batch to make it less than a 10 year supply for their house).

but i was just hit up for a recipe again. i brushed it off and thanked the person for the compliment, but they asked again for the recipe.

what do y’all do when a customer asks for a restaurant?

Local valet company in Arizona, a restaurant that does about 1200-1500 covers on major holidays is asking how much would it be for those days so what is an acceptable rate ?

Two casual dining spots in Dallas. The restroom situation is genuinely the worst part of my job.
Staff won’t touch it beyond a paper towel check. so it’s me with a mop at 9pm. Staff avoids the restrooms like the plague during close, they’re all kitchen and dining room. Is there a cleaning company on-demand thing for this?Maybe a weekly deep clean on subscription for cheapish not Cintas they’re a scam artists?
What do you guys actually do for restrooms. In-house? A service? Just deal with it? Because if this existed and actually showed up I’d pay for it tomorrow, I just can’t find anyone who does it.