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Are all Restaurants Understaffed now (2021)?

hornian

By hornian
in Food and Travel

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Gourmand
Gourmand

Confession time: This thread for me might be the most home-hitting thread in the history of Surly, so much so that reading it almost triggers PTSD. My background is in restaurant management.

hobbes2702
hobbes2702

Anyone who looks at this problem and has the conclusion that “unemployment benefits are too high” rather than “labor is underpaid” is thinking like a fucking moron 

Hagbard Celine
Hagbard Celine

The simple solution for those getting killed on labor is to pay a guaranteed salary with bonuses on sales performance, with a posted no-tip policy and food prices that reflect cost+. This is actu

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horn4life

horn4life 3760

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14 hours ago, workswithseed said:

Yes, would work better if we didn't force people to close. 

yeah... and we could stack up another 200,000 - 300,000 bodies and the businesses STILL would have died.  Because more educated people (those with the most money) pay attention to science and death rates.  It's an illusion to pretend that folks would have kept going out, and workers would be so stupid as to have just kept going to work as their co-workers headed to the hospital? Sorry to be so harsh, but reality sometimes needs to be inserted harshly.

The biggest issue is the US has ALWAYS relied on temporary migrant labor, to fill seasonal geographic needs.  Whether they produce pickers following crops, international students working the coastal towns of Florida, or the back house of most every place you have eaten at the last 20 years, we use a lot of non- US born folks to fill these roles, legally or illegally.  No immigrants due to covid, and just wanting no immigrants and certain industries get additional labor pressures.  Fresh off the boat, over the fence, or off the plane labor is a necessity, to maintain the standards we are accustomed to in the service industry.  Money will change it some, but not in areas that are seasonal.  By definition seasonal areas have huge swings in population, and thus needs for level of service in a small geographic area swing from impossible to manage, to nearly non-existent.

For US born folks the wages are no longer being suppressed by the availability of the cheap labor that we bring in for these surges of need.  With a smaller supply, those jobs need to be filled and the only way to fill them is to raise wages. 

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workswithseed

workswithseed 2103

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1 hour ago, horn4life said:

yeah... and we could stack up another 200,000 - 300,000 bodies and the businesses STILL would have died.  Because more educated people (those with the most money) pay attention to science and death rates.  It's an illusion to pretend that folks would have kept going out, and workers would be so stupid as to have just kept going to work as their co-workers headed to the hospital? Sorry to be so harsh, but reality sometimes needs to be inserted harshly.

 

I just want the "it's free market forces," people to stop claiming so when it's obviously not the free market that closed off all "non essential" work, most didn't get the chance to try. As I said, the PPP loans was paying damages brought by the forced shut down. Also the bolded is fluff.

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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21469

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Had a first for me laat night.  I had to send back drinks.  2 margaritas on the rocks, and by the time they made it to the table 20 minutes later the ice had completely melted.  Half priced fajita night at Lupe Tortilla and it took more than 2 hours to eat dinner.

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DDD Dad

DDD Dad 14335

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42 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

Had a first for me laat night.  I had to send back drinks.  2 margaritas on the rocks, and by the time they made it to the table 20 minutes later the ice had completely melted.  Half priced fajita night at Lupe Tortilla and it took more than 2 hours to eat dinner.

 

11 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

Took the wife out and it took 1hr to get 8 piece order of sushi the other night at a quarter full sushi restaurant. Waiter asked if we would like anything else… nope don’t have another hour to wait.

6fc.gif

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horn4life

horn4life 3760

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1 hour ago, workswithseed said:

I just want the "it's free market forces," people to stop claiming so when it's obviously not the free market that closed off all "non essential" work, most didn't get the chance to try. As I said, the PPP loans was paying damages brought by the forced shut down. Also the bolded is fluff.

I thought I was crystal clear. Free market forces would have closed the businesses down anyhow. 

Might have been a slow bleed, but they would have closed.  Simply because free markets would have made restaurants, movie theaters etc. known transmission points for death and hospitalization. The bonus of such a laissez faire attitude would have been lovely scenes like we got to see in India, with overrun hospitals... maybe folks really would have been saying, "Hey Honey let's go out to eat! But avoid the route near the hospital because of the traffic jam."  But I am not dumb enough to believe that. 

The PPP loans were nothing more than a massive give away to the weathiest Americans, "damages" had nothing to do with it for a LOT of the loans.  The great thing about the PPP loans was you DID NOT even need to show any need at all.  Just if you owe the bank a lot, they are going to make sure you are first in line to cover their own ass.  But that was exactly how the GOP wanted it. No accountability at all.

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Chewbacca

Chewbacca 7774

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2 hours ago, workswithseed said:

I just want the "it's free market forces," people to stop claiming so when it's obviously not the free market that closed off all "non essential" work, most didn't get the chance to try. As I said, the PPP loans was paying damages brought by the forced shut down. Also the bolded is fluff.

You're Aggy, right?  Would make sense that you don't think science is real.

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Landomatic

Landomatic 3813

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2 hours ago, horn4life said:

The PPP loans were nothing more than a massive give away to the weathiest Americans, "damages" had nothing to do with it for a LOT of the loans.  The great thing about the PPP loans was you DID NOT even need to show any need at all.  Just if you owe the bank a lot, they are going to make sure you are first in line to cover their own ass.  But that was exactly how the GOP wanted it. No accountability at all.

You do realize that businesses are required to prove that 60% of PPP loans were used for payroll to be forgiven, right? And that the rest was used for operating? You either don’t own your own business or you’re just just a moron.

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Chopper

Chopper 17230

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In the past week off the top of my head I've heard or read about the following industries facing a current labor shortage: retail, fuel delivery drivers, appliance repair and possibly airlines. How come none of these rose to national crisis level like fucking retaurant wait staff?

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Incredulity

Incredulity 11667

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11 minutes ago, Chopper said:

In the past week off the top of my head I've heard or read about the following industries facing a current labor shortage: retail, fuel delivery drivers, appliance repair and possibly airlines. How come none of these rose to national crisis level like fucking retaurant wait staff?

I’ll take, “Interactions with American consumer” for $2000.  

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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21469

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23 minutes ago, Chopper said:

In the past week off the top of my head I've heard or read about the following industries facing a current labor shortage: retail, fuel delivery drivers, appliance repair and possibly airlines. How come none of these rose to national crisis level like fucking retaurant wait staff?

Ice delivery as well if the manager of my local convenience store is to be believed.  As an aside, don’t ever buy a Samsung refrigerator if you value ice production.

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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21469

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8 hours ago, DDD Dad said:

 

6fc.gif

To be fair, I was a pretty nice guy about the whole thing, just assume that is part of the deal these days, and tipped well.  But I’m not accepting a watered down rocks margarita with no ice remaining in the glass.  The fajitas were yummy as usual despite the fact that I could have ran out to the parking lot and changed the oil in my car by the time they arrived.  IMO, the restaurant staffing problem will sort itself out in a few months.

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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21469

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12 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Servers need to understand they just can't serve a drink like that.  I'd send it back too and I never send back anything.  

I’ve sent back 3 things in my life.  2 were steaks that were ordered medium rare and showed up medium well, and these drinks .

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Landomatic

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7 hours ago, conVINCEd said:

Mine certainly found a better job.  The handle on the freezer drawer filed for disability.  I’m out on Samsung.

I love their TVs, to the point of being pretty damn brand loyal to them. Every plasma television in each of my homes is Samsung 😜

Their appliances are apparently pure shit though. Our current house had a brand new Samsung range in it. Sucked so bad I ended up donating it. Got a new washer and dryer for the same home (before I knew how bad the range sucked) and they sucked so bad I ended up returning them. 

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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21469

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4 hours ago, Landomatic said:

I love their TVs, to the point of being pretty damn brand loyal to them. Every plasma television in each of my homes is Samsung 😜

Their appliances are apparently pure shit though. Our current house had a brand new Samsung range in it. Sucked so bad I ended up donating it. Got a new washer and dryer for the same home (before I knew how bad the range sucked) and they sucked so bad I ended up returning them. 

Ain’t no apparently to it.  Small sample size and all of that, but I bought the fridge because the BIL did a whole bunch of research and came to the conclusion that this was the fridge to buy.  He’s a pretty thorough guy, and we both needed a new fridge around the same time.  We now both get our ice from 7-11, and both have a broken handle on the freezer drawer.  If you think I’m being cheap for not replacing the handle on the drawer that is fine, but it’s north of $500 because you can’t buy just the handle, you have to purchase the entire lower drawer assembly, and I am moving to another state in a few months, and the fridge will go to goodwill at that point.  Fuck Samsung, and yes, every tv in my house is a Samsung.  That will change the next time I have to purchase a tv.

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Gene Parmesan

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Samsung fridge ice makers are pure shit.  Ours kept having issues, then I googled it to find out it's a well known issue.  I had to buy a countertop ice maker because I was tired of that thing freezing up and having to pull it all out to defrost.  I'll never buy another Samsung appliance again.  Their appliances visually look pretty impressive with their integration of electronics, but never again.

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Jameslaw121

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47 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

Ain’t no apparently to it.  Small sample size and all of that, but I bought the fridge because the BIL did a whole bunch of research and came to the conclusion that this was the fridge to buy.  He’s a pretty thorough guy, and we both needed a new fridge around the same time.  We now both get our ice from 7-11, and both have a broken handle on the freezer drawer.  If you think I’m being cheap for not replacing the handle on the drawer that is fine, but it’s north of $500 because you can’t buy just the handle, you have to purchase the entire lower drawer assembly, and I am moving to another state in a few months, and the fridge will go to goodwill at that point.  Fuck Samsung, and yes, every tv in my house is a Samsung.  That will change the next time I have to purchase a tv.

We bought our fridge (no idea what brand) in Nebraska Furniture Mart's discount area for about 1/3rd of the price. Only thing wrong with it was the door handle. Going on 5 years without one, you'll be fine.

 

(also, bought an extra Ice Maker.....)

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mchookem

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FWIW we've been out several times the past couple of weeks, lunch and dinner, and service has been great. i'd call it outstanding at a couple places. 

the neighborhood sushi place, the owner was hustling more than the staff. 

feels like things are starting to even out and stabilize 🤘

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horn4life

horn4life 3760

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3 hours ago, mchookem said:

FWIW we've been out several times the past couple of weeks, lunch and dinner, and service has been great. i'd call it outstanding at a couple places. 

the neighborhood sushi place, the owner was hustling more than the staff. 

feels like things are starting to even out and stabilize 🤘

Ebisu?

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Chet Steadman

Chet Steadman 940

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On 6/24/2021 at 7:51 PM, conVINCEd said:

Ice delivery as well if the manager of my local convenience store is to be believed.  As an aside, don’t ever buy a Samsung refrigerator if you value ice production.

Totally anecdotal but during my Saturday morning beer run this morning I noticed, perhaps for the first time ever, HEB was completely out of ice.  

It may just be coincidental but that was the first time I’d ever seen that occur.  

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45676

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7 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

Terry Black's BBQ just posted a full-time vacancy for a Meat Trimmer/Sausage Maker...$27-30/hour.

 

 

7 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

They also just posted a cashier position for up to $23/hour.

God damn, that’s actually tempting. I’ve been contemplating a job with extremely little responsibility and that might fit the bill. 

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LABEVO

LABEVO 928

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16 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

They also just posted a cashier position for up to $23/hour.

 

9 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

 

God damn, that’s actually tempting. I’ve been contemplating a job with extremely little responsibility and that might fit the bill. 

wondering the same...wonder if my CFO title will qualify to handle money

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Orange&White

Orange&White 5522

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On 6/24/2021 at 1:57 PM, conVINCEd said:

Had a first for me laat night.  I had to send back drinks.  2 margaritas on the rocks, and by the time they made it to the table 20 minutes later the ice had completely melted.  Half priced fajita night at Lupe Tortilla and it took more than 2 hours to eat dinner.

This has got to be the location on MOPAC near 183. That bartender there is a fucking clueless asshat that can't make drinks to save his fucking life. We quit going a few weeks ago because having to wait 15 minutes to order and then 15 minutes to get the drink before the fuckstick would even take you dinner order is fucking stupid.

We sat and watched one day with a timer counting. There were exactly 16 other people at the bar. It took 24 minutes before I took a sip of my first drink.

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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21469

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5 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

This has got to be the location on MOPAC near 183. That bartender there is a fucking clueless asshat that can't make drinks to save his fucking life. We quit going a few weeks ago because having to wait 15 minutes to order and then 15 minutes to get the drink before the fuckstick would even take you dinner order is fucking stupid.

We sat and watched one day with a timer counting. There were exactly 16 other people at the bar. It took 24 minutes before I took a sip of my first drink.

Dallas.

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Sandman

Sandman 3403

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We went to dinner last friday at a local BBQ place. They have 6-7 stores in the OKC metro, been in business over 20 years. We go in and the first thing I notice is another family standing around. Usually you get seated right away, and there were plenty of open tables, so it was odd. We had to order our food at this walk-up counter and I heard the manager (I assume because he was the only one wearing a polo shirt) quietly tell my wife "We have no servers tonight". Our food was delivered quickly and it was fine, no complaints. I did notice the place was nearly empty. I have no idea if they're a shitty employer that is now reaping what they've sown or if it's just the way things are going. 

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