Philadelphia Inquirer (August 24)
“This is a new phase of vaccinations’ Get tough. Restaurants, cruise lines, colleges, and a growing number of employers—hospitals, municipal governments, Amtrak, Citigroup—are telling workers and customers to prove they’ve been vaccinated or go elsewhere. And all that was before Monday’s full authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.”
Tags: Amtrak, Authorization, Citigroup, Colleges, Cruise lines, Customers, Employers, Hospitals, Pfizer-BioNTech, Phase, Restaurants, Vaccinations, Workers
San Francisco Chronicle (May 16)
“Pandemic or not, restaurants can’t find rental space.” The real estate landscape is “nearly as heated as pre-pandemic levels.” One would expect “tons of options on the market at reasonable rates, but there are few deals—and competition for what’s available is intense…. Landlords, meanwhile, are hesitant to offer discounts because they’ve lacked income over the pandemic themselves.”
Tags: Competition, Deals, Discounts, Heated, Income, Landlords, Market, Pandemic, Pre-pandemic levels, Real estate, Rental space, Restaurants
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (April 22)
“The coronavirus has pulverized the balance sheets of many restaurants. But anyone with a drive-thru had a potential advantage as Americans shifted their eating habits and seating positions.” Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A is in that enviable position. Though “the vast majority” of the firm’s 2,000 dining rooms were closed due to the pandemic and remain that way, “sales and profits have soared over the last year.”
Tags: Advantage, Balance sheets, Chick-fil-A, Closed, Coronavirus, Dining rooms, Drive-thru, Eating habits, Pandemic, Profits, Pulverized, Restaurants, Sales, U.S.
Boston Globe (April 5)
“After a year of forced dormancy, the restaurant industry is scrambling to get ready for an expected boom this summer…. Despite a massive labor pool, some restaurants say they are having trouble finding people willing to return to the business. The pandemic, it seems, prompted some to reconsider life in an industry notorious for difficult working conditions.”
Tags: Boom, Dormancy, Industry, Labor pool, Notorious, Pandemic, Reconsider, Restaurants, Scrambling, Summer
Boston Globe (September 18)
“With major Boston-area employers extending work-from-home policies until 2021 or beyond and events and concerts and eating inside at restaurants and other fun activities either canceled, postponed, or greatly scaled back, the question has to be asked: Will we ever wear real clothes again?”
Tags: Boston, Canceled, Concerts, Employers, Events, Fun, Postponed, Restaurants, Scaled back, Work-from-home
Market Watch (May 22)
“Sweden’s policy of keeping schools, restaurants and businesses open while practising social distancing to prevent the coronavirus pandemic from spreading was seen as bold, but now it has now it has the highest deaths per capita in Europe from COVID-19.”
Tags: Businesses, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deaths, Europe, Pandemic, Prevent, Restaurants, Schools, Social distancing, Sweden
Wall Street Journal (April 16)
“Can we please stop talking about “reopening” the U.S. economy?… There is no on-off switch. Swaths of the economy—restaurants, travel, retail shops—were already shrinking before governments ordered them shut, because people were afraid to dine, travel or shop. These fears will abate gradually, with the pace dictated by the course of the virus, not by anybody’s decree.”
Tags: Economy, Fears, Governments, Pace, Reopening, Restaurants, Retail, Travel, U.S., Virus
Chicago Tribune (March 17)
“The world’s largest Starbucks, the Reserve Roastery in Chicago, will close indefinitely Tuesday. The move comes after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered all restaurants and bars across the state to cease dine-in as of Monday at 9 p.m. until the end of March.”
Tags: Bars, Chicago, Close, Dine-in, Illinois, Pritzker, Reserve Roastery, Restaurants, Starbucks
Businessweek (January 4)
“Just 19 percent of 15- to 17-year-olds had jobs in 2018, compared with almost half in 1968.” Shifts like this are “particularly troublesome for restaurants that have depended on young workers since the days of soda jerks and carhops.” Coupled with a tight employment market and increasing wages, restaurants will be “scrambling for cheap labor in 2019.”
Tags: Cheap labor, Employment, Jobs, Restaurants, Troublesome, Wages, Young workers
Chicago Tribune (December 23)
“Japanese leaders are now under international pressure to pass a sweeping smoking ban in restaurants and many other public places before Tokyo hosts the 2020 Olympics.” While many politicians are reluctant, “Japanese restaurateurs and entrepreneurs who seek to attract the widest possible international clientele during the Olympics—and after—will ban smoking. Wouldn’t it be terrific if the Tokyo Olympics sparked a Great Japanese Smokeout?”
Tags: 2020 Olympics, Clientele, International pressure, Japan, Politicians, Reluctant, Restaurants, Smoking ban, Tokyo
