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Post by mac on Jul 29, 2021 17:27:48 GMT
I live along Lake Michigan in a small town with a big crowd of visitors during the summer that come here to enjoy our beautiful beaches, wonderful places to eat and quaint little town. This year has been very stressful because our restaurants can't get enough help to service 10,000-15,000 visitors a day. Many of our restaurants have had to close their doors one day a week to give employees working long hours a break. Visitors are not happy having to wait two or more hours to get food served. Many people feel we should have food trucks to accommodate all our visitors.
Wondered if you're experiencing shortage of workers in restaurants as we are? Does anyone have food trucks where you live, are they a good option for a restaurant situation we are facing? What's going on in your community?
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Post by hpeterson1951 on Jul 29, 2021 18:25:14 GMT
I've seen this all over. We went to VA beach for a weekend and there were signs everywhere asking for help. One restaurant had a sign that said "Please be patient, there are only three of us working. But the food is worth it!"
My small home town in NW PA needs people so bad that the fast food restaurants are offering sign on bonuses. The Arby's is giving $1,000 sign on and $18/hour, while Wendy's is offering $5,000 sign on and $15/hour.
I've talked with friends who said this is a nation wide issues.
I hope your town can find workers and bounce back.
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Post by bbbearsmom on Jul 29, 2021 18:53:17 GMT
hpeterson1951, Those are some sign-on bonuses. mac, I've heard and read it is like that all over.
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squid
Transcendent Member
Posts: 976
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Post by squid on Jul 29, 2021 19:12:16 GMT
mac , it's everywhere. And where would the food trucks come from? Other areas of the state or out of state? Food trucks faced the same challenges restaurants faced during the shut down. A friend who just returned from the Outer Banks told me they can't get HS or college kids to work, so they've brought in a bunch of kids from Eastern Europe, mostly from Romania. They welcome the chance to make money and practice their English. They're housed in the old 50s/60s beach motels.
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Post by mac on Jul 29, 2021 19:43:07 GMT
hpeterson1951I agree with bbbearsmom with the huge sign on bonuses! I know someone on our community chat said it took them an hour to get food at Wendy's drive through. All three clerks at our Dollar Store quit at the same time so they had to close the store. One clerk went to our Meijers with more pay and appreciation for her work. squidOn our community chat they were talking about local people doing the food trucks, we do have communities near us that have food trucks and people love them, not sure who owns the food trucks. The problem is the downtown restaurants are not going to like food trucks in the city limits unless the trucks get taxed like they do and downtown businesses may also be afraid of losing business to the food trucks. We have another issue going on in town, some people want lifeguards back on our beaches because of the drownings we have every year. Not sure if we'll get a chance to vote on it. People that live here know the lake dangers but our visitors don't pay attention to our flag system on the beach, go out when red flags are up and end up having to be rescued by our fire department or drown. We had life guards years ago and they stopped the program because of the cost and some parents dropped kids off expecting life guards to take care of them.
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Post by luanne on Jul 29, 2021 20:03:04 GMT
Yes, we've noticed this in Santa Fe. We are a big tourist area during the summer. Many restaurants have cut their hours, reduced their menus, and some have just outright closed down completely.
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Post by DotRen on Jul 29, 2021 20:06:55 GMT
I'm South of Houston and I've noticed a lot more ads on facebook for waitstaff and kitchen staff in this area and Houston.
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Post by Teddy’s Mom on Jul 29, 2021 20:34:52 GMT
My son has been in the restaurant business for over 20 yrs. He’s so short of workers they’ve had to close for lunch a couple of days a week. In addition to that he’s paying dishwashers 21.00 just to get someone to show up. The hospitality industry has been really hard hit with the closures and only being able to open at 25-50% capacity for months on end. It’ll be interesting to see if people come back to work when the 300.00 extra unemployment benefits end the first week in Sept. we’re located in the Twin Cities MN.
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Post by linda72 on Jul 29, 2021 20:41:57 GMT
This is a nationwide problem and it really impacts the communities. No offense to any age group but I'm seeing teens and 20-somethings would rather hang out at the mall then get a job. As long as the parents allow them to stay in their homes, they have no incentive to leave. Some have been on extended unemployment so they have a little money coming in. Our restaurants are short-handed and now there are many food shortages. I feel for the restaurant owners trying to stay in business. The other thing I've seen is with so many people working from home (I've read estimates of 45%) many small cafes, coffee shops, sandwich shops, etc. have closed because there are no workers in the downtown areas to buy the food. We do have food trucks in Houston area suburbs but many seem to only be open on the weekends. Johnny Carrabba (who started the Carrabba Italian restaurant chain) has a new restaurant chain called Mia's Table. We have one in Katy which is really nice with good food. He's had another location ready to open since April but can't staff it so it sits empty. Johnny CarrabbaI fear this problem will get worse with this latest surge. I'm also noticing many shortages again in grocery stores. It appears many brands have cut back so there is little choice available. I gave up looking for Barq's Diet Root beer (made by Coca Cola) but luckily found DH likes the HEB version better (at half the price!)
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squid
Transcendent Member
Posts: 976
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Post by squid on Jul 29, 2021 21:07:59 GMT
Day care or child care in general is in short supply. I really question if that supplemental unemployment was a good thing in the long run. It ended on July 1 here in TN, but we still face a worker shortage.
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Post by linda72 on Jul 29, 2021 21:14:08 GMT
I just wanted to add another thing that is happening because so many people are not working. Finding repair parts for cars, appliances, A/C units, etc. are also hard to come by. I've read of waiting 6 months for a new refrigerator or washer/dryer, esp. if it's a certain brand or model that you want. In addition to large price increases of building materials, it's hard to find people to work to build new homes or make repairs. Tourism is taking a huge hit and the Europeans, Asians, and Australians really miss the visiting Americans (and their money!)
The problems are extensive and impact all of our lives. This pandemic is awful and it will take a long time for the world to recover.
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Post by mom2casey on Jul 29, 2021 21:34:46 GMT
Same issue here in Va.-(western part). Restaurants, etc. I live near one of the fitness centers- the largest in our area and it has an outdoor pool with 2 slides, sprinklers, play area for the kids, etc (not exactly a water park but a mini-one I guess) they usually are open 7 days a week (closed last year of course) this year only open Fri,Sat,Sun, Mon. Concessions are limited to pizza (brought in by Dominoe's), candy, etc. when they used to have a lot more on the menu. Wonder if the larger parks are having the same issue?
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Post by mac on Jul 29, 2021 22:53:17 GMT
There is a growing number of companies requiring vaccines as the Covid is surging again, we have two large hospitals in Michigan who now require workers to be vaccinated or lose their job. In addition to unemployment causing a shortage of workers I wonder if a lot of people don't want to work because they aren't vaccinated.
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Post by linda72 on Jul 29, 2021 22:58:39 GMT
people don't want to work because they aren't vaccinated. My sister sees this at the federal agency she works for in Ft. Worth. Her office of normally 60 employees can only have 15 now at a time (25%) and the people who don't volunteer to come in to the office state they are "scared" but they refuse to take the vaccine. All of these people, including my sister, work at home on the days they don't come to the office. I don't understand the fear of the vaccine.
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Post by mac on Jul 29, 2021 23:12:39 GMT
@llinda72 My daughter said when she got her second Moderna vaccine it hurt her, she didn't feel well many days after the shot and had to take two days off work because of this, 10 days after the shot she had two mini strokes and is still not doing well with therapy twice a week. She has been without any money assistance since April because she worked part time, she is really struggling and wishes she could go back to work.
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