Posted on 08/07/2012 10:49:00 PM PDT by KerryOnNoMore
After President Obama's health care law takes full effect, the slogan for national pizza chain Papa John's may need an update. Instead of, “Better ingredients. Better Pizza,” may we suggest, “Better health care. Pricier pizza."
Papa John's CEO John Schnatter says that Obamacare will result in a $0.11 to $0.14 price increase per pizza, or $0.15 to $0.20 cents per order, Pizza Marketplace, a trade publication, reports. (Hat tip: @dkberman via Twitter.)
Under Obamacare, the company, which is the third-largest pizza takeout and delivery chain in the United States, will have to offer health care coverage to more of its 16,500 total employees or pay a penalty to the government.
The National Restaurant Association pointed out following the health care law's Supreme Court approval that it may adversely affect restaurants’ ability to maintain already slim profit margins because it requires companies of more than 50 employees to provide affordable health insurance.
One Papa John's franchise owner in Texas, Judy Nichols, says the law could interfere with her ability to open more restaurants.
“I have two options, I can stop offering coverage and pay the $2,000 fine, or I could keep my number of staff under 50 so the mandate doesn't apply,” she told Legal Newsline. Nichols added that the law may cost her between $20,000 to $30,000 extra in taxes. “Obamacare is making me think about cutting jobs instead," she said.
But with strong sales last quarter and more than 1,500 new retail locations planned in the near future, Schnatter doesn't seem all that bothered -- perhaps because he intends to pass those health care costs on to customers.
“We're not supportive of Obamacare, like most businesses in our industry,” Schnatter was quoted as saying in Politico. “But our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare."
McDonald’s also expects Obamacare to cost each of its 14,000 franchises between $10,000 and $30,000 annually, according to Businessweek. But, like Schnatter, the company remains optimistic it is well placed to handle the extra costs.
Representatives from other restaurant chains may be less hopeful, however, including Burger King, Quiznos and Dunkin’ Donuts, all which have expressed concern the law may hurt business, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Obamacare: you won’t mind paying for it twice.
Now go pay your taxes, elitist politicians need raises. :)
Papa John's is already the most expensive pizza chain here where I live.
I love their pizza, but they don't need an excuse to raise prices.
Sorry. I accidentally copy and posted the wrong source.I was tired and looking at a different article.
ALL Obamacare expenses will be passed onto the consumer
“Papa John’s is already the most expensive pizza chain here where I live.
I love their pizza, but they don’t need an excuse to raise prices.”
We hadn’t had chain pizza in years, but moved within walking distance of a Domino’s. Over a decade and a half ago, I remember Papa John’s being good, and Domino’s second place. Now, we can’t order Domino’s often enough. With their email coupons, it’s a better deal than most frozen pizza’s. They’ve made pizza into a new food category taste wise. I couldn’t believe how good it was the first time we ordered again about a year ago. We also rarely order one any more with tomato sauce. Our favorite is Cali Chicken Bacon Ranch or simply bacon and diced tomato on white sauce. Last time, I decided to try the buffalo chicken sandwich so my daughter could have more of the pizza. I wasn’t expecting it to be that great. My daughter couldn’t believe I ate the whole thing. I’m a three bites and I’m full person. It was soooo good! We’re doing the online 50% off coupon tomorrow. I would have never thought Domino’s would be one of my favorite places to get food from.
Actually the Wolfeboro House Of Pizza is even better. You have one of those in your area?
No, and I’ve never heard of them. We only condescended to order Domino’s because they were close and we’d gotten a coupon. It was a big change from about 4 years ago when I ordered one for my daughter and her friends. I consider pizza and Domino’s two separate groups of food. LOL. Pizza has always been my favorite food. I’ve eaten it all over the world, including one with chicken, tamarind, bananas, walnuts and Brie. It’s like Domino’s found Love Potion #9.
Funny...I agree with you about Domino’s. It was the “pizza of last resort” when I was in college...LOL! I really dislike Papa John’s.
I loved the Domino’s commercial a couple of years ago when they actually ADVERTISED that they had decided that their pizza was terrible...and invited everyone to try the “new” version.
Now, it’s really quite good...and a terrific value!
I haven’t yet tried the sandwiches; thanks for the review.
I signed up for their email alerts. I look at what’s in the frozen food section of the grocery store and practically laugh out loud. Unless I want a crappy, generic pizza, Domino’s beats the price and it’s hot and cooked fresh. A frozen California Pizza Kitchen costs more, and a Red Baron is about the same price. Kudo’s to Domino’s for hitting taste out of the ball park. Their steak and cheese sandwich is pretty good, too. They did a nice job with their bread. Ugghh. I shouldn’t be talking about this. I’ll end up ordering a week’s worth of food tomorrow with my coupon. LOL.
If I read between the lines, the cost to fash food establishments are a fine of $2000 per “fulltime” employee, and not those who work 39 hours or less?
If I read between the lines, the cost to fash food establishments are a fine of $2000 per “fulltime” employee, and not those who work 39 hours or less?
Obamacare already covers that. It has a formula for calculating a “full time equivalent” count. No sneaking out of it by hiring only part-timers. I don’t know if they handle 60-hour mandatory work weeks if overtime is cheaper than paying the Obama tax for more workers,
“If I read between the lines, the cost to fash food establishments are a fine of $2000 per “fulltime” employee, and not those who work 39 hours or less?”
I believe the amount of full time employees used to calculate the cost of Obamacare penalties and fines for a business is based on the total FTE’s where the total hours worked by all are added and divided by either 40 or 32 hours per week (sorry, can’t remember which one).
If it were calculated on only employees who work 40+ hours per week, everyone would “suddenly” be working 39.9 hrs/week.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.