They actually moved away from the “take anything” return policy around a decade ago. They’re still very liberal about items they could have sold you, but it has to be something they could have sold you.

My mother-in-law once said about my mother, “it’s not like I’m rich. I don’t own a dance studio.”

I don’t think the dance studio has been profitable in any meaningful way ever. She stopped paying herself out of it when she got Social Security. Mom is solidly middle class, mostly due to inheritance from her parents, pension from the local, junior college, and probably insurance money from when my dad died.

There’s a class of people who think that if you own a business, you’re rich. Just ignore them.

Are they going to handle the money side of things and pay you the food portion?

It’s fine to give you a 1099 in that situation if there’s no LLC or corporate entity on your side.

Debatable if it’s needed but if you’re buying the raw ingredients it’s certainly not a W2 situation.

I’d make sure to think through how you audit their side, who pays for waste - for example if a server drops a plate, or a customer just doesn’t like something, and a whole bunch of other things.

Including whether you can operate as a dark kitchen out the back for delivery under your own name or theirs.

What kind of business are you in? Different work models mean different scheduling models.

I’m familiar primarily with retail, which has no need for fixed shifts. You schedule people the intersection of when they are available and when you need them.

Is this a job that requires enough skill that you can’t just hire more people? Or are there per-employee fixed costs like insurance that you’re covering that make it less attractive financially?

Very few people actually want to work 60 hours a week. It’s not just younger employees; they’re just more willing to say it. People generally want to work 40 hours and from that be able to afford to pay their bills and live their life.

There is no labor shortage. There’s a wages shortfall. If you pay enough money you can get as many employees as you want in the vast majority of the country.

Will you own the building? I’d expect the landlord to kick in for basic renovations. You’d have to buy equipment and furnishings but if you’re turning a shoe store (or a Long John Silver’s) into a coffee shop, there should be landlord support. It’ll increase your rent but might make numbers line up better.

What are your sales projections, and how did you get to them?

At a minimum you need to look at cars per hour and per day driving past your location, then I’d look for similar numbers for the five closest similarly located Starbucks. (The Starbucks in Target doesn’t count, but the one with a drive-thru on a busy commuter route does.) Traffic data should be publicly available and Starbucks knows where to open locations that succeed.

Also look at competition - if this is a “major commuter road” then there’s a good chance you have a basic idea of where the bulk of the traffic is starting and ending. Are there existing coffee shops within 5 miles in either direction? 3 miles? 1 mile? You don’t want to try to startup in an already saturated market.

Our daughter plays some game (not sure if it’s iPad or Switch) where she finds stuff then puts it in the “store” and people actually buy stuff that they can just go pick up off the ground somewhere.

I actually owned a florist for a few years. It’s a horrible business. Your stock expires fast and unless you establish some good accounts that want ongoing service, you’re either feast (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Prom season) or famine (basically all summer.)

There are plenty of places where school buses don’t run.

In rural areas, you only are “entitled” to a bus ride if it’s more than X miles from home to school. In urban areas, they may just say, “take a city bus.”

When I was in school in rural Illinois there was (some years) a “town bus” that drove around in town to transport students. Parents had to pay for that service. The kids who lived out of town got free bus service.

Disability programs exist to support people who cannot work. OP is clearly not disabled in that way.

I’m not saying they’re not entitled to it, but I’d not a completely unreasonable take on the situation.

Can you not just incorporate (C Corp I guess) and pay yourself a reasonable salary?

Would your restrictions count non financial benefits, like health insurance, a company car, etc as income?