There is a supermarket in my town (also a college town) that pays
about twice as much per hour. They don't have problems finding good
employees, and it is a pleasure to shop there - even though they are
not cheap.
We would love to pay our employees $16 per hour. Heck, I'd like to
pay myself that much!

You must really love what you are doing...

We are in a strange spot regarding our prices (and, thus, our ability
It's a real Catch-22. We find ourselves ever more busy -- we're now
running 80+% occupancy -- but we're scared to death to raise our
rates, due to our competitive position.

The supermarket I mentioned does just fine, even though there are two
or three WalMarts within driving distance.

Bartek