A Subway sandwich shop in Seattle, Washington, is no longer offering the famous ‘Five Dollar Footlong’ special due to the city’s progressively socialist taxation policies, labor laws and minimum wage mandates.
Franchise owner David Jones posted a notice to customers explaining why his store was unable to participate in the national promotion for which the company has become well-known.
Seattle Subway says so long to the $5 foot long! https://t.co/4noT5G4kVr #Subway #Seattle #Waleg pic.twitter.com/aSNDD193gU
— Washington Policy (@WAPolicyCenter) January 9, 2018
“The cost of doing business is Seattle is very high,” he wrote. “We are balancing the Highest Minimum Wage in the Nation, Paid Sick Leave, ACA, Secure Scheduling, Soda tax and much more.”
Jones assured customers he was seeking other avenues to offer discounts as quickly as possible.
Photos of the note went viral, prompting Subway execs to threaten Jones if he did not take it down.
“I got a very stern call last night letting me know that my life was going to get very ugly if I didn’t take the sign down,” Jones said. “I took the sign down this morning.”
He described the phone call to My Northwest as “threatening,” explaining that the “implicit message was they would attempt to terminate his franchise if he didn’t comply.”
Jones established himself as a vocal critic of the $15 minimum wage ahead of its passage, warning that he would be forced to transfer the added cost to his customers.
“We’ll all have to up prices,” said Jones. “It takes our full margin out. Most restaurants make less than 10 percent. This takes 10 percent out of our margin.”
A study published last year by the National Bureau of Economic Research analyzed the impact of Seattle’s minimum wage increase – it had reached $13 per hour at the time of analysis, and is currently being phased in at $15 – and the findings are predictable and ugly.
“Using a variety of methods to analyze employment in all sectors paying below a specified real hourly rate, we conclude that the second wage increase to $13 reduced hours worked in low-wage jobs by around 9 percent, while hourly wages in such jobs increased by around 3 percent. Consequently, total payroll fell for such jobs, implying that the minimum wage ordinance lowered low-wage employees’ earnings by an average of $125 per month in 2016.”
This is the second stark exposure of Seattle’s crippling economic policies that has gone viral in the last week, as the city’s stunning ‘Soda Tax’ was put on blast for the world to see.
Costco shoppers posted photos from the superstore’s Seattle location where new prices on beverages had gone into effect on January 1.
ARE YOU KIDDING?!?! Check out these prices at Costco now that the Soda and #SugarTax has taken affect in the Seattle area. 1.75 cents per fluid ounce. Pics @DevinSenaUI & @HaydenBedsole pic.twitter.com/RcsPY4e8L4
— Tim Williams (@realtimwilliams) January 6, 2018
In some cases, the cost of liquid refreshments nearly doubled.
Cook County, Illinois, recently experimented with a similar soda tax, but it was repealed almost immediately.
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