The world as a whole is collectively going through a crisis of unprecedented proportions. To pretend that everything is fine, might be one of the biggest mistakes a restaurant business can make right now.
From the globally raging COVID19 pandemic that has brought the world to halt to the protests challenging the status quo following the police brutality & extrajudicial deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. Small to medium sized businesses are met with two of its greatest challenges, deadly viral infections, and civil unrest!
As American cities were opening back to uneasy normality after surviving the first wave of COVID19 infections, the wrongful death of George Floyd sparked another flame.
The Black Lives Matter movement has induced all of American society to look within and question what is right and what is wrong. The question that reigns paramount, can restaurants carry on with business as usual?
The Impact Of The COVID19 Pandemic On American Businesses!
The U.S. economy, the biggest on the planet, has been especially hard hit by far-reaching shutdowns planned for containing the spread of COVID-19, the pandemic brought by the coronavirus. U.S. government survey data on Friday indicated the joblessness rate rise to 14.7% a month ago.
The pandemic has had varied impacts on small to medium-sized businesses around the United States. As many companies are attempting to endure, while others benefited as their businesses were deemed essential or they changed to working from home/online.
According to data, nearly 55% of American businesses have seen an adverse impact on their revenues due to the COVID19 pandemic. Yet the resilience shown by the American business community is amazing as many experts pointed out.
Out of the surveyed businesses, around 30% were not only resilient but rather they were optimistic about the future. According to many experts, many industries are better positioned to face the challenges posed by the pandemic better than others. For example, eCommerce, online food delivery, IT services, etc. are some businesses that are much better prepared for a world that is social distancing.
More than half of the companies surveyed agreed that they were facing major supply-chain disruptions as a result of the shutdowns. The impact of the pandemic is far more pronounced in a world as interconnected as ours, where a package from Hong Kong can reach Austin, Texas within a day.
Restaurant Businesses Hit The Hardest During The Pandemic
Restaurant businesses are one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with the food & hospitality industry looking at a seismic drop in sales recording billions of dollars in lost revenue.
According to some estimates conducted by the National Restaurant Association, the food services industry has likely already lost nearly $120 Billion in sales during the first few months of the COVID19 pandemic.
In all the gloom and doom, some restaurants have opened their doors as travel restrictions around the country are eased. The NRA report also stated that even after experiencing a small growth uptick in May, the restaurant industry is likely to take a lot longer to get back to normal.
While the sales figure for May stood at 38.6 Billion which was a marginal increase of $9 Billion over the figure of April. Nonetheless, it must also be understood that the May sales figure was still a whopping $27 Billion lower when compared to the same time last year in 2019.
Black Lives Matter: The Curious Tale Of Restaurants
The hospitality industry is filled with instances of bigotry and sexism, therefore it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it has trouble moving with the new tide of BLM. Bigotry and racial-discrimination originate from ignorance that has infected the minds and hearts of the average individual.
Nonetheless, if there is something that the BLM movement in the times of the COVID19 pandemic has shown is the power of the collective. Many small to medium-sized business enterprises have not only shown great resilience in the fight against the pandemic, but also the fight against racism.
The BLM movement, if anything, should at least spark a new conversation that is essential to have both offline and online. The hospitality industry has a lot of room for change and it needs that change to come from within. From toxic work environments to bare minimum wages the future of many groups of people hangs in the balance!
The Voices From America!
As the Black Lives Matter movement gains steam across the country, it is important to understand what restaurant owners around the nation are facing. It must always be remembered that restaurants are businesses built on the foundations of human welfare and well-being, when society at large is going through an existential crisis, then it puts tremendous pressure on such businesses.
According to a brilliant research piece done by Bon Appetit, the voices from America sing many songs. These are the voices of the people who deem racial injustice as threats to the state of the union and this great country of the United States of America.
It is in these voices from everyday average Americans that we highlight the spirit of democracy, equality, and fraternity among all the people of the United States. To better understand their story here are their voices from around the country:
“I’m a Black man, and business really became second once this Black Lives Matter movement came.”
Troy “Chef T” King and Selena Johnson, Six Forks Burger Co, Louisville:
I’ve always been trained as an entrepreneur to not mix business and politics. This is the first time where I actually said no—business actually is with politics. With me being Black and us having interracial children, it was a no-brainer that we were going to start speaking out about injustices.
We put Black Lives Matter signs up in our restaurant. We made a statement on our Facebook and Instagram page on where we stand. And we said, if that is what would keep you from eating in our restaurant then we do not want you in our restaurant.
“The American Indian Movement and the Black civil rights movement—we’ve always supported each other.”
Robert Rice, Pow Wow Grounds, and Frank Paro, American Indian Movement, Minneapolis:
I learned about George Floyd’s murder on Facebook. They killed him. The police murdered him, right out in public. This kind of violence happens so often—not only to Black people but also to Native Americans—so while I wasn’t completely shocked, I was very angry. We’re in complete support of the Black community on the issue of police violence against citizens. We stand together. The first day, we all ended up down at 38th and Chicago, and the protest was pretty quiet. But as we moved toward the Third Precinct, it rapidly changed into a deep rage. There was a lot of interaction between the police and the protestors, and at that point, we were like, “We need to protect our community.”
“With the death of George Floyd, we knew we had to do something.”
Claire King, Seward Café, Minneapolis:
We haven’t been a fully operating restaurant since March 15th. We did some delivery in April with beverages, dry goods, and baked goods, but ultimately shut that down. With the death of George Floyd, we knew we had to do something. All of our personal lives were changed. No one could focus on anything else. As a worker-owned café, decisions can be made actionable very quickly. We knew we had space to donate and food still in our freezer, so last Tuesday we made rice, beans, and sandwiches to give to the community.
In Conclusion
The above stories are of everyday people who have decided that they won’t let the pandemic or protests dissolve their resolve. The world today is met with challenges we were never prepared for, nonetheless, we have taken it in our stride.
In the hospitality industry within the restaurant business, it is not about how many items you sell or how many tables are booked.
It is about the smiles you bring onto people’s faces through the power of good food and welcoming aura. Today let your restaurant become a beacon of good, in a world that desperately needs it!
