Celebrity’s Fast-Food Chain Suddenly Closes All Locations Following Minimum Wage Hike
Hart House, the fast-food chain founded by comedian Kevin Hart that specializes in plant-based vegan foods, has abruptly closed all four of its locations in California. The closures happened this week, and while the company provided little explanation in its announcement—simply a pun-laden Instagram post featuring veggie burgers—industry observers speculate that California’s recent minimum wage law may have played a significant role.
The state implemented a new minimum wage for fast-food employees, which has risen to $20 per hour. This change has reportedly placed significant financial pressure on various restaurant businesses, including major chains like McDonald’s and Subway. Consequently, it is suggested that smaller, niche markets like vegan fast-food would be disproportionately affected by such increased labor costs.
Despite the challenges noted in the restaurant industry, including lingering effects from the pandemic and rising operational costs, some reports have claimed a net increase in fast-food jobs across California, attributed to the minimum wage increase. However, critics question the validity of this data, suggesting it may not fully capture job losses or reduced working hours for existing employees.
Following the closures of Hart House, it remains to be seen how the company plans to navigate these challenges or if it will attempt to reopen in the future. The staff at the locations, now without jobs, were left with just a “Hartfelt goodbye” from their employer.
Actor and comedian Kevin Hart has apparently found out there’s nothing funny about trying to run a business in leftist California.
The four locations of Hart’s mini fast-food chain, Hart House, abruptly closed their doors this week without any public explanation.
But it’s a good chance the product — plant-based vegan foods — and California’s new minimum wage law had something to do with it.
According to Eater LA — part of a national franchise of digital publications that cover the dining industry in 23 cities — the Hart Houses closed Tuesday.
The company announced the news in an Instagram post that included little more than a picture of veggie burgers and a bad pun.
View this post on Instagram
“To our team, guests, and community, who helped make the change we all craved,” the post stated.
“A Hartfelt goodbye for now as we start a new chapter.”
Well, maybe starting a “new chapter” might start with finding something a large segment of the dining population wants to eat — and doing it in a state that isn’t dedicated to destroying businesses with minimum wage laws based on leftist dreams instead of economic realities.
California this year implemented a minimum wage for fast-food employees of $20 an hour — with predictable results.
Even restaurant businesses that sell widely popular products — McDonald’s, Arby’s, Subway — have been feeling the effects of California’s minimum-wage insanity.
A business relying on a niche market — vegan fast-food, for heaven’s sake — was probably already skating on thin ice. Throw in exorbitant labor costs disconnected from the actual value of the labor involved, and it’s a recipe for disaster.
That’s not how this story is going to play out in the liberal media, of course.
Here’s how KCAL-TV, the CBS station in Los Angeles covered it:
“No word on why the chain is closing down,” the report explained, helpfully, and left it at that.
Eater LA’s report chalked Los Angeles restaurant business problems up to “challenges due to the lingering effects of the pandemic, rising operational costs, and a faltering local film and television industry.”
But it hastened to add that “the state of California is experiencing a significant boost in fast-food jobs, even as the state’s mandated minimum wage increased from $15.50 to $20 an hour in April 2024.”
That literally unbelievable claim is based on numbers from the California Bureau of Labor Statistics and touted by Gov. Gavin Newsom in an August news release.
But as KTLA-TV reported on Monday, they don’t tell the whole story.
Rebecca Paxton, director of research at the Employment Policies Institute, a conservative think tank in Washingon, D.C., told the station that California’s figures are flawed because they’re not complete.
Seasonally adjusted numbers rather than raw data, she told KTLA, show that “fast food jobs in California are down by roughly 3,000.”
“One thing that is not included in either of these data sets is a net change,” Paxton told the station. “So, it’s not measuring the number of folks who have lost their jobs, gained their jobs, or turnover … They’re still employed, but their hours have been reduced.”
Well, the workers at the four Hart House locations have just had their hours reduced to exactly zero.
But they did get a “Hartfelt goodbye.”
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