Originally Posted by
JBord
I agree there's no reason to make this political - although that seems to be everyone's default these days if you disagree with them. We should be able to look at the facts. I haven't observed the same issue, but of course restaurants here are only partially open.
The most interesting part of your post is "no one wanted to work there". The questions are why does no one want to work there, and is that the same at other restaurants in the area? Is it that one restaurant isn't a competitive employer, or is job supply higher than demand (or both)?
Ultimately, restaurants will find a way to give people what they want, both customers and employees. If one can't, someone else will figure it out and replace it. The beauty of a free market.
For many, they found it was more lucrative to collect unemployment with the pandemic funds, as opposed to work with restricted capacity.
Originally Posted by
JBord
I still go back to the "no one wants to work there" statement. Isn't a grant just temporary? What happens when it runs out?
Here's something else I've been thinking about. How have lunch restaurants fared? I'm talking about places that were near office buildings, corporate parks, or in downtowns. In downtown Chicago, there were literally hundreds of places that were open only for breakfast and lunch in the loop. With people working from home, and maybe many not going back into an office building full time, will they survive? It seems like a different dynamic than those places that mainly attract evening and weekend non-business customers.
There's a local chain in my area that was primarily a lunch restaurant. They served soup, salads, and sandwiches, and most of their business came from the lunch crowd. They offered numerous catering packages for office lunches. Most of their locations have closed.