What is the chaos costing you?

Where the numbers come from

Supervisor and manager wage$33/hr

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook. Food service managers, median $33.36/hr, May 2025.

Frontline wage$15 to $16/hr

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook. Fast food and counter workers $15.00/hr; retail salespersons $17.03/hr, May 2025.

Supervisor hours lost per day1.5 hrs

McKinsey Global Institute, The social economy (2012). Interaction workers spend nearly 20% of the workweek looking for internal information or tracking down colleagues; 20% of an 8-hour day is 1.6 hours. Frontline hours lost (0.5) is set well below this.

Hours per week, part-time24 hrs

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation, table B-2. Leisure and hospitality averages 25.4 hours a week (August 2026).

Annual turnover65%

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS, 2025 annual average total separations rate. Accommodation and food services 5.5% a month (about 66% a year); retail trade 3.8% a month (about 46% a year).

Cost to replace one person16% of annual pay

Center for American Progress, Boushey and Glynn (2012), 30 case studies. Typical cost of turnover for positions earning under $30,000 is 16% of annual salary. SHRM's 2022 benchmark puts the average cost per hire at about $4,700; the calculator's figure is lower.

Gross margin32% restaurants, 33% retail, 35% specialty

NYU Stern School of Business, Aswath Damodaran, Margins by Sector (U.S.), January 2026. Restaurant/Dining 32.2%; Retail (General) 33.2%; Retail (Special Lines) 35.3%; Retail (Grocery and Food) 26.3%.

Customers who quietly leave10% a year

Frederick Reichheld and W. Earl Sasser, Zero Defections (Harvard Business Review, 1990), and Reichheld, Prescription for cutting costs (Bain, 2001): retaining 5% more customers lifts profit by 25% or more. Esteban Kolsky, thinkJar (2015): only 1 in 26 unhappy customers complain. The 10% default is a conservative baseline you should replace with your own.

Frontline ideas and downtime scenariosExamples

The Missed ideas tab is one four-location restaurant chain's observations. The Downtime presets are illustrative scenarios. ReFED, Restaurant Food Waste Action Guide (2018): food waste runs up to 4.2% of restaurant sales, and prevention returns about $8 for every $1 spent.

Every reduction with SORTYour setting

There is no published study of SORT. Each "with SORT" slider is an assumption you control; the defaults are set deliberately modest.