Jollibee group sets record store...

with 6,480 stores, increased profitability amid a boom in restaurant sales after harsh pandemic restrictions were lifted and despite cost pressures and global supply chain disruptions that led to product shortages.

“Looking ahead, while we expect macroeconomic challenges to persist in 2023, we are confident that the JFC Group is resilient and well-positioned to drive near-term growth,” company CEO Ernest Tanmantiong said in a statement on Thursday.

“We have clear priorities on profitability while we continue to invest strategically to deliver long-term growth and value for our shareholders,” he added.

In 2022, systemwide sales surged 40.2 percent to P296.82 billion while revenues expanded by 38 percent to P211.9 billion.

Same store sale last year also grew 27 percent.

“Dine-in sales improved significantly driven by increased mobility due to easing of restrictions in markets where we operate,” the company said.

“Off-premise channels, particularly delivery showed continued resilience and we expect sustained robust growth as we improve further our digital touchpoints,” it added.

Jollibee’s operating income last year grew 58.4 percent to P9.9 billion. Margins also improved to 4.7 percent from 4.1 percent.

“Despite industry-wide headwinds, margins for the fourth quarter remained resilient due to pricing actions and cost management initiatives,” said JFC chief financial officer Richard Shin.

The company is expecting to sustain growth in 2023 with an added boost coming from the gradual reopening of China, where it maintains a significant presence.

It said on Thursday full-year systemwide sales this year would grow 15-20 percent while same store sales growth was projected to increase by 7-10 percent.

JFC said operating income in 2023 would also expand by 20-25 percent.

For the full-year, it was allocating a capital spending budget of P17 billion -P19 billion, the company said. n

Although Pratt grew up in a part of Chicago where street gangs were common, he benefited from the support of loving parents and strong role models, such as teachers and football coaches. Pratt was also protected by his older brother, who looked out for him and made sure gangs left the future doctor alone.

“Everything I’ve been able to accomplish,” Pratt said, “is because someone helped me.”

Growing up in a ‘war zone’

Diego had no adults at home to help him feel safe.

His parents were often violent. Once, in a drunken rage, Diego’s father grabbed him by the leg and swung him around the room, Diego said, and his mother once threw a toaster at his father.

At age 12, Diego’s efforts to help the family pay overdue bills — by selling marijuana and stealing from unlocked cars and apartments — led his father to throw him out of the house.

At 13, Diego joined a gang made up of neighborhood kids. Gang members — who recounted similar stories about leaving the house to escape abuse — gave him food and a place to stay. “We were like a family,” Diego said. When the kids were hungry, and there was no food at home, “we’d go to a gas station together to steal some breakfast.”

But Diego, who was smaller than most of the others, lived in fear. At 16, Diego weighed only 100 pounds. Bigger boys bullied and beat him up. And his successful hustle — selling stolen merchandise on the street for cash — got the attention of rival gang members, who threatened to rob him.

Children who experience chronic violence can develop a “war zone mentality,” becoming hypervigilant to threats, sometimes sensing danger where it doesn’t exist, said James Garbarino, an emeritus professor of psychology at Cornell University and Loyola University-Chicago. Kids who live with constant fear are more likely to look to firearms or gangs for protection. They can be triggered to take preemptive action — such as firing a gun without thinking — against a perceived threat.

“Their bodies are constantly ready for a fight,” said Gianna Tran, deputy executive director of the East Bay Asian Youth Center in Oakland, California, which works with young people living in poverty, trauma, and neglect.

Unlike mass shooters, who buy guns and ammunition because they’re intent on murder, most teen violence is not premeditated, Garbarino said.

In surveys, most young people who carry guns — including gang members — say they do so out of fear or to deter attacks, rather than perpetrate them. But fear of community violence, both from rivals and the police, can stoke an urban arms race, in which kids feel that only the foolish walk around without a weapon.

“Fundamentally, violence is a contagious disease,” said Dr. Gary Slutkin, founder of Cure Violence Global, which works to prevent community violence.

Although a small number of teens become hardened and remorseless, Pratt said, he sees far more shootings caused by “poor conflict resolution” and teenage impulsivity rather than a desire to kill.

Indeed, firearms and an immature teenage brain are a dangerous mix, Garbarino said. Alcohol and drugs can magnify the risk. When confronted with a potentially life-or-death situation, kids may act without thinking.

When Diego was 16, he was walking a girl to school and they were approached by three boys, including a gang member who, using obscene and threatening language, asked if Diego was also in a gang. Diego said he tried to walk past the boys, one of whom appeared to have a gun.

“I didn’t know how to fire a gun,” Diego said. “I just wanted them to get away.”

In news accounts of the shooting, witnesses said they heard five gunshots. “The only thing I remember is the sound of the shots,” Diego said. “Everything else was going in slow motion.”

Diego had shot two of the boys in the legs. The girl ran one way, and he ran another. Police arrested Diego at home a few hours later. He was tried as an adult, convicted of two counts of attempted homicide, and sentenced to 12 years.

A Second Chance

In the past two decades, the justice system has made major changes in the way it treats children.

Youth arrests for violent crime plummeted 67% from 2006 to 2020, and 40 states have made it harder to charge minors as adults. States also are adopting alternatives to incarceration, such as group homes that allow teens to remain in their communities, while providing treatment to help them change their behavior.

Because Diego was 17 when he was sentenced, he was sent to a juvenile facility, where he received therapy for the first time.

Diego finished high school while behind bars and went on to earn an associate’s degree from a community college. He and other young inmates went on field trips to theaters and the aquarium — places he had never been. The detention center director asked Diego to accompany her to events about juvenile justice reform, where he was invited to tell his story.

Those were eye-opening experiences for Diego, who realized he had seen very little of Chicago, even though he had spent his life there.

“Growing up, the only thing you see is your community,” said Diego, who was released after four years in detention, when the governor commuted his sentence. “You assume that is what the whole world is like.”

KHN data editor Holly K. Hacker and researcher Megan Kalata contributed to this report.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.