Devoted to customer service and the principles of exceptional customer services

“Customer service is suffering not because people are giving poor service, it’s just that they can’t get to as many customers as they need to."

Those are the words of Paul McElhone, associate director of the school of retailing at the University of Alberta in Canada in response to the ongoing employee shortage in places like McDonald's. [Source] It seems that good employees are becoming harder and harder to find. 
For me, this amounts to a big "Duh".  Most places like McDonald's are paying minimum wage and people aren't settling on working for peanuts anymore.  Even with the current minimum wage increase here in the U.S., someone working full-time still doesn't have enough to cover basic living expenses - especially in cities like San Diego where the average rent is about $1,100.  Working full-time and being homeless is a fair assumption.  If I was working for minimum wage and worked my butt off to earn my money without any praise or credit, I sure wouldn't be a happy camper and my customers probably wouldn't be happy with my attitude either. 

And speaking of minimum wage increases, will these increases really affect the bottom-line?  If it does, shouldn't businesses bite bullet for a little while and continue to focus on customer service instead of laying off employees? 

What do you think?