By Free Republic | Created at 2025-01-02 16:00:26 | Updated at 2025-01-05 00:28:55
2 days ago
Seattle waffle shop owner shuts down business over new $20-plus minimum wage law: ‘I’ve cried every day’
New York Post ^ | January 2, 2025 | Ariel Zilber
Posted on 01/02/2025 7:58:00 AM PST by Angelino97
The owner of a popular waffle shop in West Seattle said she had no choice but to shut down her business after the city’s new minimum wage law went into effect on New Year’s Day — hiking hourly pay to $20.76.
Bebop Waffle Shop, which was founded by a former New York City resident more than a decade ago, closed its doors for good on Monday.
“I’ve cried every day,” Corina Luckenbach, the waffle shop owner, told Fox 13 TV.
Luckenbach, who founded Bebop more than 10 years ago after relocating from New York to the Emerald City, said that her business had already been suffering from high inflation which caused the price of food to spike.
The waffle shop has also been hamstrung by lower foot traffic in the city — a result of many people working from home.
The minimum wage increase was the last straw, she said.
“This is financially just not going to make sense anymore. Because, just for me, the increase would cost me $32,000 more a year,” Luckenbach told Fox 13 TV.
Luckenbach, who named the cafe after her late dachshund, said that while in theory she supports workers earning a higher minimum wage, in practice she has been unable to keep up with the change...
Luckenbach, who is gay, said “the hardest thing” about shutting down her business is that it “takes away a safe space for people.”
“The stories of like what it meant to people to come in and feel safe and to feel welcomed — I just, I didn’t know,” she said, wiping away tears.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; US: Washington
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Why is it relevant that's she's gay? Or that the store was a "safe space"?
1 posted on 01/02/2025 7:58:00 AM PST by Angelino97
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