I have thought about this almost every time I have visited other countries (usually in Asia). Many times there are a number of employees standing around “doing nothing”. In America that would be considered fat to be trimmed. But the number of times I have walked around a big box store in the US trying to find someone who works there makes me feel that the American model actually cheapens the experience and having redundant employees allows the store to adapt to varying traffic flows. Americans seem to be used to this hollowing out but I don’t like it. Stores should not be vending machines.

Anyways, I would really like to see a breakdown of costs between an American restaurant and various foreign ones. I suspect floor space cost is a big part of the difference.