
If the Waffle House is closed, it's Time to Panic (2016) - brudgers
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/if-waffle-house-is-closed-its-time-to-panic/
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impendia
I was in downtown Columbia, SC for this rainstorm:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2015_North_American_st...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2015_North_American_storm_complex)

The next morning, my girlfriend and I ventured out on foot to attend a yoga
class. The yoga studio was closed, so we went to the Waffle House next door
and got something to eat. They told us that their water supply had been
compromised, but had made special arrangements so they could make coffee
safely. We enjoyed a hearty breakfast.

We learned only later that some areas of town had gotten two feet of rain,
that houses and businesses were underwater, that multiple dams had been
breached, that we should boil all our tap water for a week, and that most
people in town were without water entirely. My employer (the University of
South Carolina) shut down for a week.

Indeed. Waffle House doesn't kid around.

~~~
cjslep
I suppose it wasn't the Waffle House by Garner's Ferry Road and I77? I have
relatives near that part of Columbia and was supposed to see them that early
October but wasn't able to due to that massive amount of flooding. It was
unreal. Luckily, they love on a hill and avoided a lot of damage.

~~~
impendia
The one on Harden Street in Five Points. That part of town, and the whole
downtown area, was mostly unscathed.

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Mz
I am a huge fan of Waffle House. I love their hash browns. There are none on
the West Coast. It is one of the few things I miss about the East Coast.

I am incredibly impressed. They tend to look like glass boxes,* typically with
at least two outer walls of large windows. One back wall is bricked in on the
kitchen side and one end wall where the bathrooms are. The front end may have
glass on three sides. This is where extra seating goes.

They typically have a galley kitchen with bar seating in the middle and booths
to either side that are readily served by cooks and wait staff, plus that
additional seating area towards the front (towards the main road, usually).

They have sort of a bad reputation as a dive restaurant, probably in part
because the building looks so much like a glorified trailer and the prices are
low, but the food is good and I have always loved the chain. My dad grew up on
a farm, so I come from humble people who like down to earth places like this.
Reading this article makes me feel really good about being a huge fan, in
spite of the classist contempt some people have for the chain.

You would think that a place that (very often) looks like a glass trailer
would not be the first thing open after a hurricane. So, I am astonished, but
happily so.

* [https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=waffle+house&go=Search&...](https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=waffle+house&go=Search&qs=bs&form=QBIR)

~~~
Balgair
Anyone that eats at a place based on the decor or the other clients is missing
out on a lot of good living. This goes up and down, for Waffle House and the
Savile'. Generally, if people decide to eat at a place based on what they
think others will think of them, then I think you know what to think of them.

~~~
flyinghamster
That's something I've noticed as well. My own take on Mexican restaurants is,
the more elaborate the decor, the less impressive the food. The little
taqueria in the strip mall has far better food at a far lower price than the
impressive-looking chain restaurant, in my experience.

~~~
Balgair
It's called : Yellow Sign Mexican, at least in LA. All the best Mexican food
places tend to be in a strip mall and have a yellow sign with black letters on
the 'billboard' thingy for the strip mall

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jacquesm
That's a lovely study in contingency planning. This is something that always
strikes me when doing research in line of my work, how many companies are
simply totally unprepared for even the most obvious things that can go wrong.
It's logical, paying attention to the happy path is where the business is, it
is where you grow. But if you _only_ concentrate on the happy path you're a
small step away from a disaster.

Now, natural disasters such as this one are much harder to plan for and deal
with than the issues that could affect your average start-up. When you're
moving and selling atoms the chain from raw materials to revenues is a very
thin one with many weak links just waiting for the right conditions so they
can break.

In contrast with that, in IT most disasters are man made and easily protected
against. And yet, few companies do.

~~~
thesmallestcat
> In contrast with that, in IT most disasters are man made and easily
> protected against. And yet, few companies do.

If I'm competing in a high growth industry against somebody who is busy
planning for the worst, I'll move twice as fast and put them out of business
before their plan can matter.

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Applejinx
And this is why Silicon Valley isn't always trusted.

Yes, you probably can, and more often than not your gamble will work. You'll
move fast and disrupt and break stuff and odds are you can even say, up front,
'I'm moving fast to give you more without that boring planning stuff!' and may
still be able to put the other guys out of business: depends on how well they
handle it, and how hard you can push.

And then the natural disaster strikes and you're moving fast again, to make an
insurance claim (or get out of town!) and the people who in turn gambled on
you, are boned. Perhaps very catastrophically boned. And it's their fault,
because let's say they were told up front that it was a gamble.

But people are dumb.

And you can put a lot of more responsible community oriented business-
operators out of business before their planning matters, because people are
dumb.

Depending on what you do (taco stands? Hospitals? Building dams and bridges?),
your very Silicon Valley approach could be anything from colorful to criminal.
I will hope the bridges I drive on are 'planned for the worst'. But there's
only the inertia of social expectation, and whatever exists in terms of
enforceable legislation and policing, to ensure that. And you can always
violate legislation as part of your 'move faster' strategy, and expect to just
deal with it somehow later. So that leaves only the inertia of social
expectation.

~~~
FooHentai
DM;SV

Didn't matter; Still vested.

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10000100001010
That's my favorite Waffle House[1] (It was reconstructed after Hurricane
Katrina)! I used to eat there all the time and watch the shrimping boats out
on the gulf.

This comment doesn't have much purpose other than one of those small world
moments.

[1]
[https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/prom...](https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/promo_4x3_waffles_2.jpg?w=1024&quality=90&strip=info)

~~~
Exuma
Im sorry. I bet that is weird to look at the photo then. D:

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jsjohnst
Craig Fugate told his Waffle House postulate in Nov 2009 at the first Random
Hacks of Kindness hack day.

Video:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyjohnstone/4110293316/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyjohnstone/4110293316/)

~~~
toomuchtodo
Thank you so much for posting this. I recount this rule of thumb frequently,
and its nice to have a citation to refer to when sharing with others.

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Shivetya
While not in the food industry; I work for a national auto parts supplier
which of course has more than just auto parts; large scale natural disasters
are something to behold. From the store teams who check both company and
privately owned stores for needs to staging the warehouse with goods the local
community will need as well as the warehouse as well; that can be as little as
a semi trailer based generator.

still as with all organizations what also comes up is spinning off demand to
other stores and warehouses. getting those outside the affected area ready to
help those affected and so on.

the key though is communication and you must develop a well defined plan of
how to communicate. this means from who, how often, the methods of delivery,
and with email it can me using specific templates to make it readily apparent
everyone is on board.

anecdotal, with family and friends of who volunteer for fema, there are just
"constants" that they also use for knowing when things are getting better,
some are restaurants and other are simply commodity foods and goods.

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alister
The mention of the Waffle House Index reminds me of the Big Mac Index used to
compare currencies. The idea is that a Big Mac, being something of commodity
made from common ingredients, should cost the same everywhere in the world. If
it is significantly more expensive or cheaper in another currency, than that
currency must be over or under valued.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index)

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Animats
Waffle House has a map of their locations, but it doesn't show which ones are
down. Waffle House #1260, on Galveston Island one block from the beach, is
probably in the worst position.

~~~
Brass
I'll forward this thread to the devs. Maybe that's a feature they'd be
interested in adding.

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deerpig
I was living in Udon Thani in northeast Thailand in the year of the great
Bangkok floods.which is well over a ten hour drive from Bangkok. We had heavy
rains but no real flooding. But when Bangkok was hit, a huge part of the
supply chain for the whole country was trashed. The western style supermarkets
were almost empty for months after the floods. It was impossible to buy basic
things like instant noodles and disposable diapers for months. But fresh food,
vegetables and meat were mostly from local sources so the wet markets where
you traditionally shop every day for food were largely unaffected. It was the
"modern" infrastructure which shown to be little more than a house of cards.

I would imagine that in so-called developed economies, there isn't anything
except the "modern" supply chains. If a supply chain is using terms like
"just-in-time" then there is no way of dealing with things when infrastructure
goes down.

You guys are so screwed....

~~~
dtech
If the natural disaster had actually hit your area the local sources would
have been destroyed and unavailable for months while the externally supplied
sources would resume being supplied as soon as basic local infrastructure was
repaired.

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athom
This actually reminds me of one year I was heading home from my folks' on New
Year's. As usual, I found myself driving past Michigan City, IN, around or
after midnight, with the usual lake-effect snow going full blast. As not-so-
usual, I decided I was going to have to pull off for the night, so after
checking into the local Super 8, I set out to see what late-night eating
establishments might actually be open. Almost nothing. I swear, this was the
first and only night I ever found a darkened Denny's. (Oh, my God! They closed
Denny's! You bastards!)

I finally found one source of sustenance actually braving the weather that
night: a White Castle, probably only because it was attached to a 24-hour gas
station. At least I didn't have to go to bed hungry.

I have no idea whether there was a Waffle House in MI City, or where I might
have found it if there were, but if all else fails... I guess there's always
White Castle.

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Taniwha
We were driving away from the Gulf in the teeth of, I think, Ivan back in
2004, the freeways had been converted to only one direction, it's the only
time we've ever eaten at Waffle House, they were the only thing open, as we
left they didn't look like they were closing

I guess it can't have been too bad

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ryanmarsh
This is very interesting and mostly true but I think I speak for all coastal
Texans when I say it's not really a good measure of how we're doing,
especially those of us that have lived through several hurricanes.

