Finally back online after 3 months of no computer,

Went to the local Steak N Shake that recently reopened after being closed for close to 18 months because of the pandemic. No more servers taking your orders, getting your drinks, checking on you. You are allowed to dine in, but it's more like Mickey D's with Kiosk or App ordering, must pay by card, and when it's ready, they call your number and you go to the counter to pick it up. I decided that I am not going to pay for an over-priced burger meal that doesn't have the service.

missed you much and hope things are ok for you all

i definitely enjoy table service while possible. I bet you can cook your own burger meal better than any restaurant.

Most of our Steak N Shakes closed. I assume they had staffing issues.

We only have a few around here and I think they stayed open. But I'd bet they're feeling the pressure of the "gourmet" burger stores expanding too, and to that point maybe with staffing competition as you note. At one point, SNS was the only true premier burger chain in our area. Now we have Five Guys, Smashburger, Shake Shack, BurgerFi, Meatheads, Culvers, and probably some I missed.

COVID employment benefits should be long exhausted so what's the verdict? Where I am, the recruitment situation for restaurant workers is even more dire than pre-COVID (roughly 2/3 vs 3/4 ratio of those entering the workforce to those leaving). Prices up, service generally poor, food might be o.k. or otherwise. We're just spending our money eating (and cooking) quality at home. Never eaten so much steak and lamb in my life. All the fast food outfits are advertising for workers at wages higher than minimum.

I suspect it'll still be a while. In places where the kitchen staff were idled, many of the staff likely upgraded their skills and searched for other types of jobs. I know a few family run food court stall people were studying for non-F&B jobs like business analysts in their downtimes... The only people who weren't studying were people who prepped food or weren't interested in making career shifts.

Naw - many of the folks left in food service just don't care. To those left, its a job that even at the pay rates now available aren't very good.

Story: Youngest (19 yr old) was home for summer from college. Decided to pick up a part time job. Was the lowest paid individual in the place which had a manager and staff in ages upward of 30 to 50. After the manager realized how productive the kid was, was asking him to pick up odd shifts, train others twice his age (and who had years of prior experience) and even after the kid gave his notice, asked the kid to come in past his final work day to help for a split shift. The others simply didn't have much of a work ethic and had been fired multiple times before from other food service positions.

Good luck getting decent service out there.

David

Hope he was better compensated for these higher skilled tasks he was assigned to do!

Housing is another contributing issue, as I'm sure has already been mentioned. Just got this a few weeks from a timeshare resort in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This shack does great business and a vital part of our stay there. Very sad to hear. Not sure what they were paying their staff.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...193f297ad4.png

Certainly a factor here I am with housing costs squeezing out most. Combined F/T income has to be well over $100/hr to even get into the property market. Also a comparative lack of workers in the retired age brackets than I usually see (or used to see) in the U.S.

In my area, we're generally not seeing staffing issues at restaurants now. Occasionally, but nothing like it was before. I haven't felt that service is any worse than it was pre-COVID. Still hit and miss overall and fine at better restaurants. We don't eat much fast food though, so that may be a different story. I will say thought, that we went through a McDonald's drive-thru in Indiana a couple weeks ago on our way home from Michigan and it was nearly a 30 minute ordeal -- and then they only gave me one of the cheeseburgers in my two cheeseburger meal.

In general, it's going to take some time to get back to normal. I'm sure a lot of those folks who got paid to stay home were smart and looked for better jobs, got additional training, etc., and moved on. It's a game of catch up now.

It's not just fast food but sitdown dining of any calibre. Have some friends (all retired, some with no descendants and some on fairly-generous pensions, one of which is U.N.) who like and do fine/upscale (for here) dining fairly regularly and they're all disappointed with recent service quality, and food quality at times, given that it's gotten much more expensive. Perhaps a difference of where you are but barrel bottoms have apparently been scraped here several times and heat has even been applied to extract the last of the dregs.

I read somewhere earlier this year that restaurant owners have to keep their poor performing staff otherwise they might as well just close up as there won't be anyone else to work. Pre-COVID, people who could "swing a hammer kind of straight" were being hired. Now they just have to be able to swing if not just hold a hammer.

Definitely not been my experience here over the last few months. We've actually had several very nice experiences. We moved into our current home right as COVID begun, so it took us two years to discover a few nice restaurants in our area, but they've all been good experiences in 2022. But the restaurant industry is strong and generally pays pretty well in the Chicago area. I suspect there are still staffing issues at lower-paying jobs, just based on the lines I see at the grocery stores due to only one cashier working. On a side note, I've also read a couple of articles claiming that restaurants in Chicago are having problems attracting customers as they did pre-COVID. I assume that puts some pressure on restaurant management as well, in terms of how to staff.

This makes a lot of sense. So many experienced workers left and are likely being replaced with true entry-level employees -- in some ways it's the nature of the business, a lot of restaurant jobs are staffed by high school and college students. But to your point, it may not be the cream of the crop any more. I know that around us, many parents made their teens quit their jobs for fear of COVID. The talent pool probably isn't full.

Founding Family Reopening a single Zoe's Kitchen in Birmingham
 

Some interesting news about Zoe's Kitchen:

and

Quote:

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According to Cassimus, the Birmingham (Crestline) location she and her family are reopening will serve as the final Zoes with no plans to open additional units. The restaurant, located at 225 Country Club Park, closed as a Zoes Kitchen under Cava ownership and is expected to reopen "soon" with the Cassimus family at the helm.

For many years ToNeTo Atlanta has heard from readers lamenting first the loss of certain classic Zoes menu items (slaw anyone?), and later the loss of their local Zoes in total. According to a Facebook post John Cassimus made announcing the news, the "new" Zoes will actually be anything but and will feature the "original" Zoes menu!

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Link: Tomorrow's News Today Atlanta - Founding Family Reopening Zoes Kitchen (January 11, 2023)