# Has a Business Ever Closed Because No One Wanted to Work There? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 15, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729 "2007-10-15T00:29:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/1 "2007-10-15T00:29:04Z")
I’m sure it’s happened before, where working conditions at a business are so terrible, and employee turnover so high (or no one applies), that a business has had to close. But I’ve honestly never heard of such a thing happening. Can anyone provide any examples? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/2 "2007-10-15T02:53:15Z")
In general what happens isn’t a high turnover (except initially) but rather that anyone with skill leaves and anyone who isn’t skilled stays on collecting paychecks. With no one skilled, the company either doesn’t sell product or can’t even get products out the door and so dies from that. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/3 "2007-10-15T03:05:10Z")
It isn’t quite as simplistic as you put it but it does happen at all levels of business. There will always be bodies to put in seats not matter what the price but they may not be appropriate for the business at hand (temps selling multi-million dollar deals for instance). I work for a large start-up area under an umbrella mega-corp and working conditions and pay we universally viewed so badly in some of our key positions that, not only could they not recruit enough people, about half of those that they did recruit quit suddenly within 1 - 3 months. The situation has been corrected a little but that is an example of a big business that almost failed because of that type of thing. For reference, the positions that had these problems were professional ones with upper-middle class pay. There are countless other examples but it would be rare to not have someone willing fill a position for some type of paycheck. Even chicken houses, which have notoriously horrible working conditions have illegal aliens fighting to get a chance to work there, ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/4 "2007-10-15T03:21:56Z")
There are currently a number of agribusinesses that are hurt for a lack of labor to harvest their crops, but that leads to a whole different topic. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/5 "2007-10-15T04:17:07Z")
Not exactly what you are asking, but the local KFC was found abandoned one day when all the workers just left. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/6 "2007-10-15T04:26:34Z")
Not a GQ answer but… Where I used to work we had enough people put in their 2 weeks after the boss started handing out new rules that he scraped the rules. It wouldn’t have left the business _closed_, but we would’ve had to turn customers away. I’m sure it’s happened. Maybe if not on a permanent basis, at least enough of an employee walkout where business shuts down for a day or two. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/7 "2007-10-15T06:30:51Z")
A note posted to the door of the Blenz Coffee Shop in Vancouver: [http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news\_columnists\_ezorn/images/quit\_note.jpg](http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/images/quit_note.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/8 "2007-10-15T12:23:00Z")
[QUOTE=Duke of Rat] Not exactly what you are asking, but the local KFC was found abandoned one day when all the workers just left. [/QUOTE] Actually, that is exactly what I’m asking about. Did the place close? Can you provide any more details? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/9 "2007-10-15T12:24:14Z")
[QUOTE=Cyberhwk] Not a GQ answer but… Where I used to work we had enough people put in their 2 weeks after the boss started handing out new rules that he scraped the rules. It wouldn’t have left the business _closed_, but we would’ve had to turn customers away. [/QUOTE] Wow. Can you tell me a little more about how this happened? What were the rules? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/10 "2007-10-15T12:51:08Z")
> [@Duke of Rat](#): > > Not exactly what you are asking, but the local KFC was found abandoned one day when all the workers just left. [QUOTE=HeyHomie] Actually, that is exactly what I’m asking about. Did the place close? Can you provide any more details? [/QUOTE] I think this was the branch in Marie Celeste… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/11 "2007-10-15T13:27:41Z")
It’s common in vacation-type places, like where my parents live on Amelia Island, that restaurants have a hard time staying open because they can’t get the waitstaff, because waiters can’t afford to live on Amelia Island. I’m sure they have the same problem at, say, ski resorts. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/12 "2007-10-15T13:33:08Z")
This isn’t quite the same, but the PA state tourism association is pushing for a later start to the school year. The students that tourism-related businesses rely on for labor have to go back to school, and some of the smaller ones have to close before the end of the season, and they’re not very happy about that. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/13 "2007-10-15T13:41:39Z")
On the anecdote front, there’s a Burger King in Maine that closed because it couldn’t find any workers. But at least I have a [cite](http://www.aims.ca/atlantica.asp?typeID=3&id=584) for my anecdote. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/14 "2007-10-15T13:45:31Z")
I’ll try to find some stories to back this up, but it seems a few years ago many fast food restaurants closed in Ft. McMurrray, Alberta. The economy there was so hot that the burger joints couldn’t pay enough to attract anybody to work there. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/15 "2007-10-15T13:58:59Z")
Yep, in Alberta this problem is real. Several companies have announced that they are cancelling plans to open stores in Edmonton because there is no one to work in them. A number of fast-food places have cut their hours because they don’t have enough staff to cover all the shifts. Around here, 7-11 is offering $700 signup bonuses and other perks to try to attract staff. Lineups in stores are becoming more and more common because the stores are short-staffed. And the city claims it can’t do all the road work it wants to because it can’t find employees to do it. Everywhere you look there are help wanted signs. I even saw a truck driving around with a giant billboard on it offering construction jobs to untrained people. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/16 "2007-10-15T14:13:17Z")
The Triangle Shirtwaist Co., for one. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/17 "2007-10-15T14:23:52Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] The Triangle Shirtwaist Co., for one. [/QUOTE] I think their problem wasn’t that they couldn’t attract employees, but that they had a high burnout rate. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/18 "2007-10-15T14:40:26Z")
[QUOTE=HeyHomie] Actually, that is exactly what I’m asking about. Did the place close? Can you provide any more details? [/QUOTE] Not really, it’s been a while back. There was an article in the paper reporting what happened. The place closed for a few days, maybe a week, until an experienced manager could take over and hire a new crew. Word was they just got tired of dealing with it and walked off. A customer discovered the abandoned restaurant and called police, the police located the manager and got the scoop. I don’t remember any charges being filed, I don’t think they cleaned out the register or anything, they just left. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/19 "2007-10-15T14:46:41Z")
Not what the OP is asking, but technically a sole proprietership whose owner retires would qualify. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2007, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729/20 "2007-10-15T15:12:37Z")
Not quite the same thing, But a bar I went to closed down one day. The Owner/Closing time bartender had a heart attack and died while me and about 5 other patrons were there. The cops and Ambulance showed up and told us all to leave. So we did. When I went back a couple weeks later, it just wasn’t open anymore. I ran into one of the day time bartenders a while after that, and he said the place just kind of fizzled out. He went into work the next day, worked his shift and handed it off an always. After two days of that the register was full, and he wondered why it hadn’t been taken to the bank, and when he couldn’t get hold of the owner he called the police and found out. The workers all got togther to talk. The owner had no family, and no will, so nobody was quite sure what to do, so they took their remained wages out of the till, locked the door and left for good. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-business-ever-closed-because-no-one-wanted-to-work-there/422729.md?page=2)