Olive Garden Has Middle-Class Problems

[greatlaurel]

15. The hedge fund report is what passes for frat boy/MBA analysis, claptrap served up in PowerPoint

There are lots of good folks who have stopped going to Darden restaurants because of the political actions of management. A lot of us have not forgotten Darden's actions against the ACA and President Obama. The author of this article has a few good points about the disappearing middle class, but seems to be selling other restaurants. Does the author own stock in Panera or Chipotle? Both of those chains are ridiculously overpriced for the quality of food they sell.

The hedge fund analysis of Olive Garden is classic MBA gobbledygook. The problem with Olive Garden bread sticks is not that there are too many of them, but that the bread sticks taste awful. The salad has been reduced to crappy bag salad and one sad pepper and two black olives, if you are lucky. The service is really bad, probably because management views their employees and customers in a contemptuous and abusive manner. Customers are marks to scalp. Employees are there to run into the ground and then fire when they are no longer useful.

Olive Garden is being run into the ground by people with the same mindset of the frat boy/MBA's who work at the hedge fund. They have no clue how to provide a quality service or product to the general public. It is all gimmicks or marginally legal stock and property manipulation.

Here is the plan to save Olive Garden for free: Serve quality whole wheat pasta and good freshly made salad (not bagged salad that is only fit for the compost pile), make good bread sticks (not the ones that leave a foul after taste) and serve them generously, pay your employees a living wage and provide decent benefits like sick leave for when they have a cold or flu so they do not make the customers sick. Treat your customers nicely and not charge a ridiculous amount of money for a spaghetti dinner. Problem solved.