Restaurants vs. COVID - Part II

A little blast from the past - here are some photos of my family at our Houlihan’s Restaurant (now occupied by Famous Dave’s) on SWC Lake Mead & Rainbow from 1997-2003.

Product, Staff, and Customers, Oh My!

Picking up where we left off, restaurants were not the only group who felt like they weren’t in Kansas anymore, but they maybe had the toughest journey home from Oz.  Here’s some of the things they had to deal with…

Product Disruption

First of all, there was a massive shakeup in the supply chain.  Farm and meat packing workers saw widespread infections early on in the COVID outbreak and many if not most food production facilities got shut down.  Next, a large amount of food package demand shifted from commercial sized quantities from restaurants and other large commercial operations (hotels/cruise ships/etc.) to residential sized portions, which put distribution companies on their heels.  Then, to go package demand exploded as anyone as everyone who wanted to stay open for business now had to switch to being a takeout expert and were in competition to buy the same packaging as the traditional grab & go or fast feeder guys.  They were fighting for to go packaging like we all were fighting for toilet paper.  And now there’s a package packet shortage for God sakes!  Not fun.

Staff Issues

In case you weren’t aware, restaurant workers were all on the front line when much of the country was holed up in their homes or apartments on Zoom cocktail parties or making Tik Tok videos.  Therefore, a lot of them got COVID and couldn’t make it into work.  And, while unemployment has been a blessing to a vast amount of food service workers who wanted to keep their jobs and go to work, even when their places of employment were ordered to shut down, it has also been a curse to many of their employers.  Fact of the matter is many people determined their unemployment checks were such a great deal that it didn’t make sense to actually have to go to work anymore.  It’s just much easier making the same (or sometimes better) money and sit on the couch playing video games.  It has gotten so bad recently that one well known breakfast diner branded restaurant here on the Las Vegas Strip had 35 crew staffed for a morning shift and 4 people showed up for work.  Since I didn’t warn you that there was going to be math in this blog, I’ll do it for you.  31 out of 35 people staffed to work a morning shift did not show up to work.  Holy $#@!

Customers

Really?  You don’t understand why you have to wear a mask, can’t sit at that table, why the dining room isn’t open today, why they are out of your favorite dish tonight, why the service was ‘off’, so you are going to take out your frustrations (and possibly take your flame-thrower/keyboard to YELP) on the teenage hostess who is now in charge of taking, expediting, and cashiering an unprecedented amount of to go orders, as well as the now layered-on job of bussing tables (because the busboy has also transitioned into a delivery driver to deal with the incredible delivery demand) all while trying to keep the restaurant in an orderly flow and keep a smile on her face?  Just because you can’t find toilet paper, and you and your spouse can’t find enough quiet space to have your work Zoom meetings because your offices are closed, and your dog is going nuts trying to attack the Amazon driver at the door who is showing up every 15 minutes with all of the crap you ordered, and your kids are pissed off because they are home with you instead at school with their friends taking virtual classes, doesn’t give you a free ticket to be an asshat.  Knock it off!

These are just some of the issues restaurateurs have had to deal with this past year.  The amazing thing is, many have learned to do it, and do it well.  When the pandemic started, many new restaurant deals got killed by operators who figured they should wait for a lot of restaurants to close, and they would scoop up prime locations on the cheap.  It has not happened.  Not even a little bit.  Demand for restaurants has actually been higher than ever.  Some things have changed.  More demand for drive-thrus (single, double, and now even triple!), more outdoor space requirements, smaller footprints, etc. These are all signs that the industry is alive and well, and will be around for many, many years to come.

Now, if I can only convince restaurant owners to raise their prices so they can better withstand fluctuations on market conditions.  But, as I am out of space here, that’s a topic for another blog.