How to help restaurants survive pandemic
Restaurants are starting to close again. If you think that sounds bad, it’s worse than it sounds.
It’s a miracle so many have made it this far. A shift to takeout and delivery, massive layoffs, a wave of public goodwill and substantial (if disorganized) financial assistance helped most restaurants limp through the lockdown, however battered and bloodied. Unfortunately, between the current surge of infections and the imminent expiration of federal programs, things are about to get even worse.
But while restaurants are frantically adapting, retooling and turning everything inside out to survive the pandemic, here’s some good news: If you want to help, you barely have to change a thing.
In fact, it’s essential that you don’t. I don’t mean to be glib. Between furloughs, layoffs and pay cuts, millions of Americans aren’t in a position to support restaurants as they normally would. But for many, helping restaurants through the pandemic is less a matter of ability and more a matter of awareness.
We’re not powerless in helping restaurants
It’s easy to feel powerless these days. But understanding why restaurants are in such dire straits quickly reveals that the power to save them rests in the hands of the dining public.
The problem is that most dine-in restaurants are economically viable only so long as they’re reasonably full. But whatever your stance on the health implications, there are practical obstacles to making that happen.
As the ranks of servers and cooks are decimated by illness, many Arizona restaurants can’t keep enough hands on deck. And even if restaurants manage staffing issues and Arizona doesn’t enter a second lockdown, diners won’t show up in the numbers necessary to sustain restaurants until they have the confidence they can do so safely. You could almost hear the collective industry shrug when Governor Ducey imposed a 50% cap on dining room occupancy, as bemused owners tried to figure out which restaurants were even halfway full to begin with.
That’s why you’re starting to see a lot of restaurants voluntarily close up shop or return to takeout only. The cost of staffing sparsely populated dining rooms, a runaway infection rate and abusive guests railing against safety measures are not a sustainable formula for keeping tables open. And many if not most of the restaurants that survived the first round of closures won’t survive another, mandated or self-imposed.
Better management of the pandemic response could have — have — avoided this situation altogether. But while the burden of rescuing the restaurant industry shouldn’t fall on the average diner, the political climate dictates that it might.
Thankfully, the burden lighter than you think.
is probably
Want to help save your favorite restaurants?
Go to your favorite places just as you always have — the same ones, just as often. Order the same foods. Order a few drinks, tip generously and enjoy your
meal. Just enjoy it at home rather than sitting down in the dining room.
That’s the thing. That’s all it takes. It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but if everybody maintained — and could maintain — their normal dining habits, most restaurants could ride out the pandemic indefinitely.
Operating takeout under these conditions involves some additional costs, but the bulk of the problem is simply that people aren’t ordering from restaurants as often, and when they do, they’re ordering less. According to data compiled by the National Restaurant Association, spending at eating and drinking places in May was down over 40% from the previous year, and that was a sharp over April’s numbers.
In other words, what’s crushing the restaurant industry isn’t some uncontrollable external force.
It’s us.
This isn’t to place blame. Even among the financially secure, a sharp drop in spending is both understandable and expected. That’s why you hear calls to ignore the advice of medical experts and rush back into dining rooms. But this way of framing the options — stay at home or “reopen the economy” — is a false choice. Where restaurants are concerned, it’s perfectly within our power to do both.
Why it isn’t enough to order an entree
It isn’t enough to get an entrée and call it a day.
Would you have ordered a starter and a dessert if you dined in? Gotta keep doing so. Similarly, alcohol is a huge chunk of restaurant revenue, so either booze it up as you normally would or overtip to compensate. (Speaking of tipping, yes, you should have been tipping for takeout before, and it’s twice as important now.) Also, as you would if you were going out, take the time to drive and pick up your food whenever you can. Delivery apps take a huge cut off the top, leaving restaurants with razor thin — if any — margins on those orders.
For those asking why you should pay the same amount of money and not get the full dining room experience, here’s the answer: Because you’re a good person who can handle washing your own dishes for a while to ensure the people who have worked so hard to care for you are cared for themselves.
If you need a selfish reason, perhaps staving off economic collapse due to mass unemployment in one the nation’s largest industries will do?
Whatever the motivation, if everybody did this, our restaurants would still be there on the other side and all restaurant employees — both back of house and front of house — could be paid normally. Unfortunately, not all diners will do this, and with the terrifying spike in unemployment, not everybody can.
That’s where step two comes in. Luckily for you, others are already doing the heavy lifting.
Want to go the extra mile? Here’s how
You don’t have to make a reservation to carry out. So why not take that time to call your representative instead?
There are organizations working to rescue restaurants and their employees that need calls, letters and emails to legislators — as many as they can muster.
Groups like the Arizona Small Restaurant Coalition and the Independent Restaurant Coalition are working to stabilize the restaurant industry by advocating