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Have you ever read something online, tried to find it again and completely failed? Lots of conversations begin with someone saying “I read an article…” and that’s where I’m starting today. I read an article. Except I read it a long time ago and I haven’t been able to find it again. It’s not a big problem, because it’s more to do with the way the article made me feel at the time, rather than any specific details in it. So I’m doing a lot of paraphrasing. Don’t quote me.
When I’m not working with or writing about After Effects, I’m also interested in food and cooking. And the article that I stumbled across was on a food related website, and it was looking at the failure rate of restaurants.
Restaurants are quite well known as being poor investments. Apparently, most new restaurants fail within a year of opening. This is well covered on the internet, although the exact failure rate is sometimes disputed.
When I resigned from my full-time job and went freelance, the first thing I did was register my business name. In my particular city, once you do that they send you out a little brochure that outlines all the sorts of things you need to do if you’re starting a small business. And I remember that the brochure I got had an entire chapter dedicated to saying DON’T OPEN A RESTAURANT. They mostly fail in the first year. Mostly.
The article that I have completely failed to find again wasn’t looking at the exact failure rate of restaurants. What they were interested in was that this figure has been increasing over time. Now I am completely making up numbers here, but let’s say that in the 1980s, about 50% of restaurants failed in their first year. That number has climbed. Maybe it was 55% in the 1990s, 60% in the 2000s, and 65% in the 2010s. It’s even higher now.
But regardless of what the exact numbers are, why are they going up?
As I read the article and the authors outlined their research, findings, and shared their conclusions, I felt the hairs on my neck beginning to stand up. Because it sounded like everything that they were writing about could also be applied to the motion graphics and visual fx industry.
I don’t know if motion design and VFX studios are more or less likely to close down than they were 20 years ago. I don’t know if the number of artists that are leaving the industry is increasing, or if there are any other long-term trends in solvency and profits. But I can’t help thinking that After Effects and Chicken Parmigiana might not be that different.
Pub Grub and Pixel Pushing
So – what did those authors discover?
The simple version is that a lot of restaurants failed because their founders felt like they were joining a global foodie culture, and participating in some sort of worldwide foodie movement, while the average paying customer just wants something cheap and simple to eat.
Back in the 1980s, for example, restaurants were considered pretty posh if they baked their own bread. But that was about the limit of in-house production. But since the 1980s the world has seen an increase in globalisation (sorry, I hate that word) and the emergence of the internet has formed huge, global, social networks. No matter what you’re interested in, the internet allows you to instantly share and communicate with people with similar interests, no matter where they are around the world.
Foodies are no exception. There are countless recipe sites, YouTube channels, blogs, forums and so on to do with every single aspect of food and food culture. If you can cook it, or eat it, then the internet is full of people cooking and eating it. Worldwide foodie culture is absolutely huge. And even though there’s a seemingly infinite number of cooking shows on TV that run 24/7, the real culprit here is Instagram.
Tiramisu, chocolate fondant (aka lava cake) and salted caramel are all examples of foods / flavours that have spread across the globe, and that have been the subject of research into exactly how, and how fast, they spread. I didn’t know people could earn a living studying salted caramel, but now that I do I’m re-evaluating some of my life choices.
The problem comes when people who are passionate about food decide to start a restaurant. They’re obviously doing this because it’s something they love. But being immersed in an endless source of global content creates a sense of pressure. Your Instagram feed might be inspirational, but it’s also a constant stream of induced peer pressure from an audience you think you’re a part of, but that you’ve never actually met. Your imagination becomes your harshest critic.
A chicken parmigiana is a pretty simple meal. You start by getting a piece of chicken and frying it. Then cover it with some ham, tomato sauce and cheese, and serve it up with fries and a bit of salad. That’s it. Many years ago I met a local radio presenter who was determined to review every single chicken parma in Melbourne. It’s noble work.
