RoadsideOnline.com

The biggest reason why single location, family run, short order restaurants (aka diners) are in so much trouble is because of the business climate in New Jersey. Large national chains can absorb and spread out all that overhead over dozens or hundreds of locations. OR, they they have the capital to invest in new technologies that reduce their reliance upon humans to staff the operation. This is a problem in most states, but it is especially bad in New Jersey.

New Jersey's iconic diners are dying. This is the wrong way to save them. Democratic state lawmakers want to give tax carveouts to certain restaurants. The real problem is New Jersey's tax code itself.

"More than anything, he worries that any change in ingredients will erode consumer trust in the Reese’s brand. A Valentine’s Day letter to Hershey executive Todd Scott, accusing the company of doing just that by quietly replacing milk chocolate and peanut butter with cheaper substitutes, went viral after MrBeast directed his 34 million followers to it. The YouTuber, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, made sure to note the “real peanut butter” in his Feastables cups."

I miss the days when our biggest controversies were about the purity of our sacred candies. Here where I live today, Stutz's makes an amazing, and genuine, peanut butter cup.

He’s Reese’s Biggest Advocate—and Hershey’s Biggest Headache Reese’s peanut-butter cups haven’t been made by a Reese since 1963. That hasn’t stopped Brad Reese from championing the candy, or bashing the owner.

I think maybe hell has frozen over.

It was 30 years ago when a speaker at the Society for Commercial Archeology's diner convention characterized New Jersey's official attitude towards diners by paraphrasing Jerry O'Mahony's tagline: "In our decline, we lead the world."

As much as we'd like to see a roaring comeback for these eateries, I think this gesture is classic "too little, too late". The fact is that all manner of mom-and-pop restaurants are under siege from a variety of forces, not the least of which are regulations that have steadily strangled all independently owned short-order restaurants. And no, policies responding to the pandemic was just the final nail in the coffin for far too many of these places.

To the best of my knowledge, not a single diner in New Jersey is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Could a 'registry of historic eateries' help New Jersey's diners? Under a proposal by lawmakers, qualifying restaurants would be exempt from sales tax and eligible for credits worth up to $50,000.