Short-staffed restaurants take a toll on workers and customers

Jeff Rothenberg, a customer says he's been accustomed to the long 30-min waitlists at restaurants, even when tables are openly visible. This has been a common scenario across the food service industry since the covid 19 pandemic began in 2020. Rothenberg says, "Another restaurant we went to had open seats outside, but when we went to the host, they mentioned that the kitchen was short-staffed." He adds that he had to wait another 45 minutes after he was seated to get his food to his table. 

The lockdowns in the spring of 2020 led to layoffs and furloughs for many cooks and waitstaff, prompting the federal government to back billions of dollars in forgivable loans for small businesses. The US workforce was left ravaged. As states later relaxed restrictions, the restaurant industry recovered, although the industry is still down 750,000 jobs.

However, customers are noticing the difference. In the first quarter of this year, customers had mentioned short staffing three times more often in their Yelp reviews than in the year-ago period. Nev Wright, a healthcare worker says, "I think the experience has been different since Covid. I see that the restaurant industry has changed a lot. It wasn’t always like this — now it takes time, with expenses and shortages of staff and everything." The American Customer Satisfaction Index found that the restaurant sector's score slipped to 76 out of 100, from 78. 

Source: CNBC