Fast-food restaurateurs in California are warning customers to expect price bumps ahead of a new minimum wage for the industry, which will go into effect on Monday.
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill in September lifting the minimum wage for fast food workers from the state minimum of $16 an hour to an industry-specific rate of $20 an hour. The bill is set to go into effect on April 1.
With the new wage floor just days away, fast-food businesses are preparing to cut jobs and hike prices to offset the increase in costs.
“It’s going to be a pretty significant increase to our labor,” Chipotle chief financial officer Jack Hartung said during an earnings call last year, according to the Los Angeles Times. Hartung said that a significant amount of the cost would be passed on to customers in “a mid-to-high single-digit” percentage price increase.
“We are definitely going to pass this on,” Hartung said.
A Starbucks spokesman said the company would offset the added labor costs “through a variety of levers—including near-term pricing as well as other efficiencies.”
In addition to price increases, some employees will be cut to make way for cheaper automated options. Other business owners may quit California entirely.
“Where they can automate, they will automate more,” said Harry Holzer, Georgetown University professor and former Labor Department chief economist. “Maybe some franchises will move out of state.”
Jamie Bynum, a Dickey’s Barbecue Pit franchisee, said the new law would raise expenses at his southern California location by $3,000 to $4,000 monthly, additional costs he will pass on to customers.
“People don’t understand that when wages rise, so do the prices,” Bynum told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/business/economy/fast-food-minimum-wage-california.html">The New York Times</a>. He said that in the past, when he has been forced to raise prices, fewer customers have come to his business, eating away at his earnings and forcing him to make cuts to his workforce.
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The new law will make California’s minimum wage for fast-food workers the second-highest in the country for minimum wage workers. The only other place with a higher floor is a small city outside Seattle, where the minimum is set at $20.29 for some.
The bill signed by Newsom last year will force most fast food chains to raise pay, though the bill included a carveout for businesses that also make and sell bread as a separate menu item. The carveout was criticized as some alleged it was a favor to one of Newsom’s financial backers, Greg Flynn, a billionaire whose business runs two dozen Panera locations in the state. Newsom <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4499331-gavin-newsom-says-panera-not-exempt-from-california-minimum-wage-law/">denied</a> the accusation and insisted Panera was not exempt from the new law. Still, Flynn <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/05/business/panera-franchise-california-to-raise-minimum-wage/index.html">pledged</a> to increase the hourly wage at his Panera locations to $20 an hour after criticism erupted over the exception in the law.

Chipotle

CA Fast Food Joints Warn Of Price Hikes Ahead Of New Minimum Wage: ‘Definitely Going To Pass This On’

CA Fast Food Joints Warn Of Price Hikes Ahead Of New Minimum Wage

Business

California

Economy

Gavin Newsom

Minimum Wage

restaurants

Pizzerias who make their New York slices in coal and wood-fired ovens could soon be forced to stop using the historic cooking method.
A proposed policy from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/06/25/nyc-rules-crack-down-on-coal-wood-fired-pizzerias-must-cut-carbon-emissions-up-to-75/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">would require</a> restaurants making coal or wood-fired pizzas to slash their carbon emissions by up to 75%.
“All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” department spokesman Ted Timbers <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/06/25/nyc-rules-crack-down-on-coal-wood-fired-pizzerias-must-cut-carbon-emissions-up-to-75/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
“This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible.”
The rule may mean pizzerias that installed coal or wood-fired ovens before May 2016 must purchase expensive air filter systems to reign in their emissions.
Some of the classic pizza spots that could be affected include Lombardi’s in Little Italy, Fornino’s in Williamsburg and several other locations, Arturo’s in Soho, John’s of Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, Patsy’s in Turtle Bay and the Upper West Side, and Grimaldi’s near the Brooklyn Bridge.
Fewer than 100 restaurants would be affected by the new rule, a city official <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/06/25/nyc-rules-crack-down-on-coal-wood-fired-pizzerias-must-cut-carbon-emissions-up-to-75/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the New York Post.
Paul Giannone, who owns Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint, which cooks wood-fired pies, called the $20,000 air filter he installed to prepare for the rule “expensive&#8221; and &#8220;a huge hassle.”
“Oh yeah, it’s a big expense!” Giannone told the Post. “It’s not just the expense of having it installed, it’s the maintenance. I got to pay somebody to do it, to go up there every couple of weeks and hose it down and you know do the maintenance.”
The rule would require pizzerias using these kinds of ovens to hire a professional to determine whether it is possible to install an emission control device that would cut carbon emissions by 75%.
If installing such a device is not possible, the professional must figure out whether any emission controls could at least reduce emissions by 25% or explain why no emission controls can be installed.
A pizzeria can apply for a variance or waiver, but the restaurant must prove that it has a hardship justifying it.
The proposal was drafted to comply with a 2015 law approved by former Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio also <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/699-15/mayor-bill-de-blasio-signs-legislation-air-conditioning-regulation-businesses-package-of" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cracked down</a> on businesses that leave their doors open, spilling air conditioning onto the sidewalk.
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Department of Environmental Protection officials said they were delayed in drafting the coal and wood-fired oven rules because of the COVID pandemic and because it was difficult to create rules that would not negatively affect restaurants. The department also said it consulted restaurant owners.
“The advisory committee and DEP were unable to finalize a rule in that time frame due to the difficulty of crafting a rule to manage technical and cost concerns that are attendant to the installation of emission control devices,” department officials told the Post.
“For example, costs for controls for existing cook stoves can be difficult to manage as the spaces in which these cook stoves operate are often aging structures that were not designed to accommodate emission control devices,” the officials added. “In addition, many of the locations where existing cook stoves are used are not owned by the operators of the cook stoves, and changes required to install such devices require obtaining the landlord’s permission.”

Fresh Pizza In New York City

NYC Climate Rules Would Crack Down On Coal, Wood-Fired Pizzerias

Climate Change

Environment

New York

New York City

Politics

On Monday, a group of restaurant owners and business organizations said they gathered enough signatures to pause a California wage law and put the measure on the ballot in two years. 
The <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB257" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a>, known as the FAST Recovery Act, was signed earlier this year by Democratic Governor Gavin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gavin-newsom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Newsom</a>. It creates a governmental Fast Food Council of ten people that would create rules for fast food workers, including how much they earn, as well as working conditions and hours. 
The group of restaurant professionals is called Save Local Restaurants, and said it had filed over 1 million petition signatures to halt the law and let voters in California decide if they want it to go into effect during the 2024 election, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/restaurant-groups-push-to-overturn-california-fast-food-wage-law-11670247131" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. 
“The FAST Act would have an enormous impact on Californians, and clearly voters want a say in whether it should stand,” the Save Local Restaurants group <a href="https://fox40.com/news/california-connection/petition-to-stop-fast-food-labor-council-law-gathers-one-million-signatures-but-some-question-validity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “The measure would establish an unelected council to control labor policy in the counter-service restaurant industry, cause food prices to increase by as much as 20% during a period of decades-high inflation, and harm thousands of small family-, minority-, and women-owned businesses across the state.”
<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">TIRED OF THE LEGACY MEDIA&#8217;S BIAS CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE AND OBSCURING THE TRUTH? JOIN US AND SAVE 30%.</a>
The group needed to get around 623,000 valid signatures from voters by Monday, December 5, in order to get it on the 2024 ballot. Now, the California secretary of state has to look over the submissions to decide if enough valid signatures are included to get it onto the ballot.
The National Restaurant Association <a href="https://restaurant.org/NRA/media/Downloads/PDFs/advocacy/2022/California-Fast-Recovery-Act.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in September that since the measure became law, it “has major impacts on both franchisees and franchisors by giving an unelected body the ability to create regulations that are harmful to quick service operators around the state.”
It could make the minimum <a href="https://www.theregreview.org/2022/10/25/stephen-new-california-law-forces-fast-food-restaurants-to-think-fast/#:~:text=The%20FAST%20Recovery%20Act%20stipulates,high%20as%20$22%20per%20hour." target="_blank" rel="noopener">wage</a> for fast food workers as steep as $22 per hour in 2023. The law applies to chains that have more than 100 locations around the country. 
Those who are in favor of the measure argue that it’s vital for the economic advancement of workers who are employed at fast-food locations. 
“This landmark law protects and empowers over 500,000 fast-food workers and makes historic progress towards reducing racial and income inequality in California. Still, fast-food corporations refuse to respect the law and come to the table,” President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Mary Kay Henry <a href="https://fox40.com/news/california-connection/petition-to-stop-fast-food-labor-council-law-gathers-one-million-signatures-but-some-question-validity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>.
The SEIU filed a complaint last month via a law firm over the signatures’ validity, arguing with some videos, that petitioners were not truthful with people in order to persuade them to sign the petition.

7D2FC01A-03D6-40D5-82D2-197C1B69D85B_1_201_a

Restaurant Groups Say They Have Filed Over 1 Million Signatures To Pause California Fast Food Worker Law, Put On 2024 Ballot

Restaurant Groups File 1 Million Signatures To Pause California Fast Food Worker Law, FAST Recovery Act, Put On 2024 Ballot

Downtown San Francisco restaurants and have been hit so hard by the COVID pandemic and its aftermath, where people work remotely instead of traveling to the city, that restaurants are crying out to the local government to subsidize them.
Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, suggested that the city subsidize restaurants for as long as 12 to 18 months to keep them solvent.
“It’s dealing with the operating expenses for a certain period of time, so they don’t have to make money for that period,” she  asserted to the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/A-shuttered-pizza-restaurant-demonstrates-17614635.php?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=briefing&amp;utm_campaign=sfc_baybriefing_am&amp;sid=54dd212c3b35d005218bb6e2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">San Francisco Chronicle</a>. “And then maybe you’re going to incentivize some people to come in and take a chance” to open a business.
“I know this is expensive, don’t get me wrong. I don’t know where we get the money,” she added.
The city has already doled out over $83 million to small business, whether by grant, loan or a tax break.
“There are bigger economic forces at play that are keeping people from our core and downtown than the lack of restaurants — one of them being the lack of foot traffic because of hybrid work schedules,” Gloria Chan, spokesperson for the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, stated. “Subsidies going directly to property owners for new restaurants is a massive financial undertaking and likely not feasible without federal or state funding in addition to requiring significant resources and investments from the businesses themselves.”
Thomas cited the 2011 tax break that enticed Twitter and other tech companies to move to the area.
The list of restaurants closing in the Bay Area in October <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/mikkeller-restaurant-closures-17547688.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">included</a> the Mikkeller Bar in the Tenderloin area, Padrecito, the Soon and Soon Souvenir Shop, Fatted Calf, Bonchon, Holder’s House, Hotline, the Berkeley Bagel Street Café, Augie’s Montreal Deli, Pastis, Broken Record, Campo Fina, A Taste of Denmark, Tribune Tribune, Café Lane 33, and the Kebabery.
In September, the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/september-restaurant-closures-17473667.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list included</a> Maru Ichi, Seven Stills, El Charro 1947, Chica, The Grove, Alchemy Collective, Zazzi Foods, Smitten Ice Cream, Big 4, Roosevelt Tamale Parlor, Double Play Bar &amp; Grill, and the Sesame Tiny Bakery.
“A lot of us hoped that the return to office would happen, but it didn’t. So we can’t just kind of hope, now, that these areas just organically create themselves,” Thomas concluded.

Close-Up Of Information Sign Outdoors

San Francisco Restaurants Closing In Droves. Restaurant Assn. Wants City To Subsidize Them.

San Francisco Restaurants Closing In Droves. They Want City To Subsidize Them.

COVID-19

Food

San Francisco

U.S.

Chick-fil-A has been ranked as America&#8217;s favorite restaurant in an annual survey, marking the chain&#8217;s eighth consecutive win.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) <a href="https://www.theacsi.org/news-and-resources/press-releases/2022/06/28/press-release-restaurant-study-2021-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> this year&#8217;s rankings on Tuesday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChickfilA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChickfilA</a> continues to lead the industry – and all restaurants – for the 8th straight year with a steady score of 83 (out of 100).
Download our study to see how other fast food and full-service restaurants ranked in customer satisfaction: <a href="https://t.co/3udsQk6Ghb">https://t.co/3udsQk6Ghb</a> <a href="https://t.co/XSvEQSbPEJ">pic.twitter.com/XSvEQSbPEJ</a>
&mdash; The ACSI (@theACSI) <a href="https://twitter.com/theACSI/status/1542610186703183874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“The large group of smaller full-service restaurants experiences substantial deterioration in mobile app quality, contributing to a steep decline for the industry overall, which tumbles 8% to 78,” says Forrest Morgeson, Assistant Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University and Director of Research Emeritus at the ACSI.
“Amid the pandemic, restaurants needed to quickly up their game in the mobile arena. With fewer resources, smaller chains and independent restaurants are offering apps that aren’t making the grade per customers. In contrast, positive shifts in both mobile app quality and reliability for several larger chains appear to reflect major app updates for these bigger industry players,&#8221; he added.
Chick-fil-A&#8217;s <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/chick-fil-a-americas-favorite-restaurant-8th-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> to Fox News Digital was quick to thank its customers for the honor.
“We are honored by the results of this survey and we are grateful to our customers for choosing Chick-fil-A – it’s truly our pleasure to serve them,” the statement read.
“More than 170,000 people represent Chick-fil-A in 2,700 restaurants,” the spokesperson said. “This recognition is acknowledgment of the care they put into serving great food with gracious hospitality.  Every day, our restaurant Team Members go above and beyond each day to create a friendly, welcoming place to visit,&#8221; it added.
Chick-fil-A led all restaurants overall and was also the winner in the fast-food category. Behind Chick-fil-A in second place in the fast-food segment was Jimmy John&#8217;s, followed by Domino&#8217;s Pizza and KFC. Other high-ranking franchises included Chipotle, Panera Bread, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks.
The survey revealed that more Americans prefer sit-down dining over a fast-food experience despite Chick-fil-A&#8217;s win.
&#8220;Customers agree that sit-down spots outperform fast food chains when it comes to food order accuracy (87 to 83), restaurant layout and cleanliness (84 to 81), food quality (86 to 81), and food variety (84 to 79),&#8221; the ACSI report added.
Chick-fil-A has become so popular that long lines at the drive-thru at some franchises have become a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chick-fil-a-could-be-declared-a-public-nuisance-in-santa-barbara" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concern</a> for communities. In California, the Santa Barbara City Council considered labeling a location a public nuisance over long lines that back up into nearby streets and caused traffic issues.
The franchise&#8217;s traditional values have also led to controversies in some parts of the nation. In 2021, Democratic state legislators in New York pushed to keep Chick-fil-A out of rest stops in the state because of past donations to organizations that are allegedly anti-LGBTQ.
The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ny-democrats-move-to-ban-chick-fil-a-from-rest-stops-over" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Democratic Assembly Member Harry Bronson, who represents the Rochester area, started an online petition to prevent Chick-fil-A from being included among the restaurants being added to rest stops along I-90 in the New York State Thruway Authority’s $450 million service-state modernization project, according to <a href="https://www.rochesterfirst.com/food-and-drink/bronson-critical-of-involvement-of-chick-fil-a-in-i-90-rest-stop-plans/?utm_campaign=socialflow&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=t.co" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RochesterFirst.com</a>.

Chick-fil-A

Chick-Fil-A Ranked America’s Favorite Restaurant for 8th Consecutive Year

Chick-Fil-A Ranked America's Favorite Restaurant for 8th Consecutive Year

LGBTQ

The catch of the day at a Malaysian <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/restaurant">restaurant</a> still had a hook in its mouth, according to a diner who detailed the fishy incident in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jia.min.3760/posts/4726674337437456">Facebook post</a>.
Lemon Mii and her family were eating at a Kuala Lumpur seafood restaurant and sharing a dish that is popular in the country: fish head curry, <a href="https://www.asiaone.com/malaysia/its-none-our-business-kl-restaurant-boss-tells-diner-who-found-fishing-hook-fish-head">Asiaone.com</a> reported. But the family patriarch noticed the hook that landed the meal was still lodged in the fish’s head, according to Mi.
&#8220;Can you believe it?” Mii wrote on Facebook, along with a picture of the plate, the hook and the restaurant bill. “Luckily my father didn&#8217;t put the whole thing in his mouth.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_404079" style="width: 826px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-404079" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-404079 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Screen-Shot-2022-07-01-at-3.51.42-PM-816x576.png" alt="A woman in Malaysia says her family found a fish hook in their meal, and the restaurant manager's response did not help." width="816" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/07/Screen-Shot-2022-07-01-at-3.51.42-PM-816x576.png 816w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/07/Screen-Shot-2022-07-01-at-3.51.42-PM-300x212.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/07/Screen-Shot-2022-07-01-at-3.51.42-PM-768x542.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/07/Screen-Shot-2022-07-01-at-3.51.42-PM.png 1130w" sizes="(max-width: 816px) 100vw, 816px" />The family claims they found a fish hook in their meal of fish head curry. (Lemon Mii/Facebook&#8221;</div>
Mii said she summoned a waiter who said the kitchen had been careless. But when the restaurant manager came over, he deflected the blame, according to the woman.
&#8220;It&#8217;s none of our business, it&#8217;s the supplier&#8217;s problem,&#8221; the manager allegedly said.
The bill came to 298.60 ringget, equivalent to $67.75 in U.S. currency. The manager deducted less than 20 cents from the bill, in what Mii’s Facebook friends called an “insincere” gesture.
&#8220;At first, you said it was the kitchen&#8217;s problem, now it&#8217;s the supplier&#8217;s issue?” Mii wrote. “I really feel bad for the supplier.”
Diners have claimed to have found hooks in their fish before.
A man in Sichuan, China, allegedly found a hook and fishing line in his meal in 2015, according to the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3153742/Not-quite-catch-day-Man-finds-FISHING-HOOK-food-told-restaurant-owner-s-normal.html">Daily Mail</a>. The waiter helpfully advised him not to eat it.
&#8220;That&#8217;s just normal,” the man was told. “Those hooks were used to catch the wild fish. Sometimes there are way too many hooks for the chefs to see them.&#8221;
Also in 2015, a New York woman sued after allegedly finding a hook in her branzino at a swanky uptown eatery, the <a href="https://nypost.com/2015/02/11/woman-bit-down-on-fish-hook-during-fancy-dinner-suit/">New York Post reported</a>. The woman, Aliona Russo, suffered cuts inside her mouth and to her tongue, according to reports.
In 2019, a Georgia man claimed he found a fish hook in a can of mackerel that he had just opened to feed his dog. The supermarket where he bought the can apologized profusely and gave him a refund.
“Can you imagine an animal with a fish hook stuck in their jaw, stuck in their mouth and in pain?” Keith Hearn told the <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/gwinnett-man-says-something-fishy-was-canned-mackerel-bought-kroger-hook/ti82wO7By4E7UibsXVUuQP/">Atlanta Journal-Constitution</a> at the time.

Fish

Family Makes Frightening Find In Seafood Dinner, Woman Claims

A recent report revealed that many Americans are going to restaurants and taking part in sports events while a lot of them are still staying away from the office, instead opting for remote work. 
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/people-are-going-out-again-but-not-to-the-office-11644843600">reported</a>, “Thousands of companies that closed their offices in March 2020 have yet to announce return plans. An average of 33% of the workforce returned to the office during the first week of February in the 10 major cities monitored by Kastle Systems, which records building-access-card swipes.”
The amount has been slowly going up from 23% in the first week of January when some companies told employees to go home due to health concerns. Late Monday, Kastle <a href="https://www.kastle.com/safety-wellness/getting-america-back-to-work/">noted</a> that the workplace return rate for the second week in February went down a small amount from the first week. The number is still not close to the high point of 41% in the first week of December prior to the surge of the Omicron variant. This remains true for cities like New York which is experiencing an infection rate close to the amount it experienced prior to Omicron.
At the same time, the return rate to movie theaters during the first week of February was at 58% of what it was prior to the pandemic, per a Kastle analysis of industry statistics, according to the Journal. Restaurants were almost three-quarters as full as they were prior to the pandemic, and air travel had come to around 80%. “Attendance at National Basketball Association games was 93% of what it was in February 2020, Kastle said,” per the Journal.
“There’s a huge divergence between the ways that people are coming together in the other parts of their lives and the way they aren’t in the office,” said Mark Ein, Kastle Systems chairman.
The return to the workplace doesn’t just affect the companies whose employees might prefer to work from home, but it also has an impact on the businesses who rely on busy downtown activity. Tens of thousands of small businesses around the country depend on employees who work in offices and commuters as their customers. 
“In Manhattan, about 10 to 15 customers a day pass through the First Class Barber Shop near Grand Central Terminal. Before the pandemic, the daily average was 50 to 60, said the owner, Nikita Shimunov. He has cut his staff from five to three, but he will still have to consider closing unless his landlord agrees to renegotiate his rent,” the Journal noted. 
“I pray every day,” he said.
Politicians are even starting to weigh in on the dilemma.
“Business leaders, tell everybody to come back,” recently said New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) in comments to a civic organization. “Give them a bonus to burn the Zoom app and come on back to work.”
Some businesses have stated renewed return dates while others are unsure if they should implement a vaccine mandate for workers. Many employees appear to prefer the flexibility of working from home, making executives reportedly anxious to require them to return to the office in the midst of a labor shortage. While there is some concern that remote working could alter a company’s culture, some studies have also revealed that employees are just as, or even more, productive when they don’t work in an office setting. 
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/companies-weigh-the-costs-and-benefits-of-remote-work">reported</a> last month, “The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/workers-care-more-about-flexible-hours-than-remote-work-11643112004?mod=flipboard">reported</a> on the mindsets and priorities of many employees, noting that more are interested in a flexible work schedule than the physical location of where they work.” 
The Journal reported, “Ninety-five percent of people surveyed want flexible hours, compared with 78% of workers who want location flexibility, according to a new report from Future Forum, a consortium focused on reimagining the future of work led by Slack Technologies Inc.”
The data was gathered in November 2021 from a survey of more than 10,000 “knowledge workers.”
The information also showed that 72% of employees who weren’t content with their job’s flexibility on time or physical location would probably look for a different option in the next year. 
The Future Forum survey also discovered that people doing their work in a hybrid form of splitting time between a remote spot and an office went up 12 percentage points since May. “More than two-thirds of those surveyed said a hybrid setup was their preferred way of working,” the Journal noted. 
Some executives worry about how a hybrid working environment could have negative effects on certain groups of workers at a company, “especially women, working mothers and people of color, who when surveyed said they were more likely to prefer flexible arrangements,” the Journal added.

4601CF49-A93D-4A04-913D-38FA18650342_1_201_a

Americans Return To Restaurants, Movie Theaters At Higher Rate Than Offices

COVID

Lockdowns

Movie Theaters

Restaurants are limiting the options on their menus in response to employee shortages and the skyrocketing prices of ingredients. 
As <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/restaurant-menu-food-costs-shortages-11639437261">reported</a> by The Wall Street Journal, “This year, 60% of restaurants reported reducing their menu size, according to Datassential, a food-industry market-research firm that studied more than 4,800 menus in the U.S.&#8221;
“The menus at fine-dining establishments were hit especially hard, with the number of items declining 23% over 2021, says Datassential’s Sean Jafar, who studies menu trends. The consumer-price index for food away from home, which includes purchases from restaurants, rose 5.8% over the past year, the largest 12-month increase since 1982, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.”
As noted by The Journal: 
<blockquote>
Restaurant menus often expand and shrink with the economy. Many menus shrank after the onset of the 2009 recession, but expanded as business came back, Datassential’s Mr. Jafar says. The number of menu items can tick up or down by roughly 10% depending on the year, but he says most restaurants haven’t experienced the huge swings associated with the pandemic.
</blockquote>
Restaurants moved to implement simpler menus during the pandemic, as well, and the trend could be continuing as supply chain issues affect consumers and business owners alike.
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/23/business/restaurant-menus-shrinking/index.html">reported</a> on the smaller menu sizes being carried out in restaurants across the country in June of 2020. 
John Dillon, chief brand officer for Denny’s, said in an emailed statement to CNN Business at the time, “When we realized the effects of the pandemic we quickly mobilized to create a new streamlined menu,” adding that the company was serving dishes that &#8220;simplify operations and [are] easier to execute for our team members.”
This trend has been ongoing for some time and is a tactic sometimes used by restaurants for creativity and marketing. However, it might be turning into a long-term strategy.  
“The longer the menu, the more costly it is to maintain,” said Gordon Food Service Corporate Consulting Chef Gerry Ludwig, CEC, in an industry <a href="https://www.gfs.com/en-us/ideas/the-incredible-shrinking-menu-0">article</a> by Gordon Food Service.
“A smaller menu allows you to streamline your inventory. Fewer dishes are less complicated for the kitchen to execute,” Ludwig noted. “Consistency is easier to maintain. Faster inventory turnover means fresher ingredients.”
The scarcity of available workers is also contributing to the issue.
<a href="https://go.restaurant.org/SOImidyear.html">According</a> to the National Restaurant Association’s 2021 State of the Restaurant Industry Mid-Year Update, “3 in 4 operators say recruitment and retention is their toughest challenge despite employment gains.”
The report, which was released in September, also noted: 
<ul>
<li>Restaurant sales are on the rise.</li>
<li>Wholesale food prices are trending sharply higher. A first in its 54-year history, the Bureau of Labor Statistics index registered gains above 2% in 3 consecutive months.</li>
<li>Menu prices trended higher due to higher food, labor and fuel costs.</li>
<li>Case rise of the COVID-19 delta variant is impacting restaurant visits.</li>
</ul>
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ recent report, the “food index increased 0.7 percent in November after rising 0.9 percent in both September and October. The food at home index increased 0.8 percent in November as all six major grocery store food group indexes rose; this was the third consecutive month that all six increased.”
The rise in prices is not only affecting American families and individuals, but is pushing business owners to make their own decisions on what items they can afford to sell to consumers, and how they will be able to keep their companies going as Americans begin to potentially cut back on their spending once again.

436AC28E-2EDF-4819-959B-D228B5D97A00_1_201_a

Menus Shrink As Restaurants Struggle With Skyrocketing Prices, Staff Shortages

Inflation

President Joe Biden gave an interesting answer during a CNN town hall event to a restaurant owner who is struggling to find people to hire, telling the owner that his business might be in a “bind” for a while and suggesting that maybe other businesses with similar problems need to pay more money to workers.
&#8220;We employ hundreds of hard-working team members throughout the state of Ohio and across the country. And we&#8217;re looking to hire more every day as we try to restart our restaurant business,&#8221; John Lanni, a Republican, said to Biden. &#8220;The entire industry, amongst other industries, continue to struggle to find employees. How do you and the Biden administration plan to incentivize those that haven&#8217;t returned to work yet? Hiring is our top priority right now.&#8221;
&#8220;Well, two things, one, if you noticed, we kept you open,&#8221; Biden claimed. &#8220;We spent billions of dollars to make sure restaurants could stay open. And a lot of people who now — who worked as waiters and waitresses decided that they don&#8217;t want to do that anymore because there&#8217;s other opportunities at higher wages, because there&#8217;s a lot of openings now in jobs and people are beginning to move, beginning to move.
&#8220;There&#8217;s some evidence that maintaining the ability to continue to not — to not have your — have to pay your rent so you don&#8217;t get thrown out and being able to provide for unemployment insurance has kept people from going back to work. There&#8217;s no — not much distinction between not going back to work in a restaurant and not going back to work at a factory. So people are looking to change opportunities, change what they&#8217;re doing,&#8221; Biden continued.
&#8220;I think it really is a matter of people deciding now that they have opportunities to do other things and there&#8217;s a shortage of employees,&#8221; Biden later said. &#8220;People are looking to make more money and to bargain. And so I think your business and the tourist business is really going to be in a bind for a little while.&#8221;
&#8220;And one the things — we&#8217;re ending all of those things that are things keeping people back from going back to work, et cetera. It will be interesting to see what happens. But my gut tells me, my gut tells me that part of it relates to, you know, you can make a good salary as a waiter or waitress,&#8221; he concluded. &#8220;One of my sister in laws is &#8212; of five sisters makes a very good salary. She works in Atlantic City. That&#8217;s where she&#8217;s from. But it is &#8212; there&#8217;s a lot of people who are looking to change their occupation. I think. But I could be wrong.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A restaurant owner asks Biden how his admin will incentivize returning to work. Biden suggests businesses should just pay better if they can’t find staff. <a href="https://t.co/v0ggrkHx0k">pic.twitter.com/v0ggrkHx0k</a>
&mdash; The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1418018142983446533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Welcome back, everyone. We are live at a CNN town hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the president of the United States.
Straight to the audience for questions. This is John Lanni. He is the owner and co-founder of a restaurant group with 39 restaurants across the country, Mr. President. He is a Republican. John?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT: Hey, John.
QUESTION: Hey there, Mr. President. Thank you for taking my question tonight. We employ hundreds of hard-working team members throughout the state of Ohio and across the country. And we&#8217;re looking to hire more every day as we try to restart our restaurant business.
The entire industry, amongst other industries, continue to struggle to find employees. How do you and the Biden administration plan to incentivize those that haven&#8217;t returned to work yet? Hiring is our top priority right now.
BIDEN: Well, two things, one, if you noticed, we kept you open. We spent billions of dollars to make sure restaurants could stay open. And a lot of people who now &#8212; who worked as waiters and waitresses decided that they don&#8217;t want to do that anymore because there was other opportunities at higher wages, because there&#8217;s a lot of openings now in jobs and people are beginning to move, beginning to move.
There&#8217;s some evidence that maintaining the ability to continue to not &#8212; to not have your &#8212; have to pay your rent so you don&#8217;t get thrown out and being able to provide for unemployment insurance has kept people from going back to work. There&#8217;s no &#8212; not much distinction between not going back to work in a restaurant and not going back to work at a factory. So people are looking to change opportunities, change what they&#8217;re doing.
My deceased wife&#8217;s father-in-law was a restauranteur up in Syracuse, New York. And, by the way, he tried to &#8212; he had a restaurant that was in a town called Auburn, about 20,000 people, which was a flagship 24-hour-a-day restaurant that &#8212; and he offered it to me, which I would have been making five times what I would in law school to try to keep me in Syracuse. But I spent too many times at home hearing &#8212; in his home hearing a phone call, &#8220;The cook didn&#8217;t come in? He&#8217;s in a fight with his wife? What&#8217;s going on?&#8221;
BIDEN: So I would &#8212; God love you, doing what you do.
QUESTION: It&#8217;s tough.
BIDEN: But all kidding aside, I think it really is a matter of people deciding now that they have opportunities to do other things and there&#8217;s a shortage of employees. People are looking to make more money and to bargain. And so I think your business and the tourist business is really going to be in a bind for a little while.
And one the things &#8212; we&#8217;re ending all of those things that are things keeping people back from going back to work, et cetera. It will be interesting to see what happens. But my gut tells me, my gut tells me that part of it relates to, you know, you can make a good salary as a waiter or waitress.
One of my sister in laws is &#8212; of five sisters makes a very good salary. She works in Atlantic City. That&#8217;s where she&#8217;s from. But it is &#8212; there&#8217;s a lot of people who are looking to change their occupation. I think. But I could be wrong.</blockquote>

US-POLITICS-BIDEN

Biden To Restaurant Owner Struggling To Find People To Hire: ‘Your Business’ Is ‘Going To Be In A Bind For A Little While’

Joe Biden

Townhall

Following Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D-NY) latest ban on indoor dining, restaurant owners in New York City took to Times Square to protest.
Newsweek <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/this-city-killing-us-nyc-restaurants-ask-governor-cuomo-repeal-indoor-dining-ban-1554985">reported</a> that the New York State Latino Restaurant, Bar and Lounge Association (NYSRBLA) organized the protest, which came the day after Cuomo announced a new ban on indoor dining that would start on December 14. Restaurants would still be able to provide outdoor dining, but as winter approaches in the city, many restaurant owners have said that will be impossible.
&#8220;This city is killing us. You&#8217;re hurting a lot of New Yorkers,&#8221; said Tony Herbert, who represented the New York Multicultural Restaurant and Nightlife Chamber of Commerce, according to the outlet.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to protect everybody, but we also have to understand that our restaurants are one of the most important avenues of small business in our city,&#8221; Herbert added. &#8220;So, I say to the governor, I say to the mayor, get your act together now. We need our restaurants open now.&#8221;
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/12/15/restaurant-owners-protest-in-nyc-to-reopen-indoor-dining/">reported</a> that the protest was attended by &#8220;[h]undreds of restaurant owners, workers and industry leaders &#8230;&#8221;
“Save our restaurants! Save our jobs!” the protesters reportedly chanted as they marched from Father Duffy Square to Cuomo’s office in Midtown East.
Jeffrey Garcia, president of NYSRBLA, spoke to the crowd, explaining the dire circumstances faced by the community.
“The situation continues to get more and more dire, and the shutting down of indoor dining during the holidays, when New York City restaurants are providing the safety measures, is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said. “We need action immediately.”
The Post reported that New York’s “own contact tracing data shows restaurants and bars account for a mere 1.43 percent of recent known COVID-19 exposures.” Still, Cuomo has shut down indoor dining and suggested outdoor dining will solve the industry&#8217;s problems, but the recent snowstorm showed that was not an option.
“We were so hopeful when indoor dining was allowed again to try to keep it afloat. But now that we’re unable to pay rent due to the shutdown, I’m afraid that I’m going to lose everything altogether,” said restaurant owner Sandra Jacques, whose restaurant, Inwood’s II Sole, was forced to let go about two dozen employees due to Cuomo’s coronavirus restrictions.
More from the Post:
<blockquote>A report from the New York State Restaurant Association found two-thirds of restaurants said they are likely to close by the end of the year without a comprehensive relief package that’s specifically for eateries, the NYSRBLA said in a news release.
A survey by the NYC Hospitality Alliance found nearly 87% of businesses <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/09/21/almost-90-percent-of-nyc-bars-and-restaurants-couldnt-pay-august-rent/">couldn’t pay their full rent in August</a> and 88% had to stiff their landlords in October — even with outdoor dining in full swing and indoor dining at 25% capacity. 
Andrew Rigie, the executive director of The Alliance, said at least 210,000 jobs were lost when restaurants were originally forced to shutter back in March and the gains the industry has made since will soon be erased with the closure of indoor dining. 
“Thankfully, due to limited indoor dining, outdoor dining, we’ve hired back about 100,000 people. But guess what? There’s tons of people still out of work and with our new shutdown, those 100,000 jobs could be back on the chopping block,” Rigie said. </blockquote>

NYC protest

NY Restaurant Owners Protest Andrew Cuomo’s Indoor Dining Ban: ‘This City Is Killing Us!’

This week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told owners of restaurants they should be “happy” for his ban on indoor dining, while only last week he admitted that his own contact-tracing data revealed <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/12/11/andrew-cuomos-anti-science-job-killing-utterly-senseless-nyc-indoor-dining-shutdown/">just 1.43 percent</a> of state cases were linked to bars and restaurants.
Cuomo stated during a press conference this week:
<blockquote>Let’s focus on what the real issues that we should be concerned about and where we are really. I’ve all sorts of people who are concerned, “Well, you went down to 25% indoor dining; you canceled indoor dining; you’re requesting more testing for people in salons, lower capacity in gyms.” Yes to all of them. That is not the real problem, that is not what you should worry about.
What you should worry about is shutdown because if we do not change the trajectory, we could very well be headed to shutdown and shutdown is something to worry about. That is really something to worry about because all these businesses close, we go back to where we were. All non-essential businesses close, they go to zero. So yes, we’re trying to change the trajectory, “Well, I’m upset that you’re trying to change the trajectory.”
You should be happy because if we don’t change the trajectory, we’re going to go to shut down and then your business is going to close. And that, my friends, is a real problem. Worry about that because that is a real worry.</blockquote>
Yet last week, Cuomo trumpeted his government’s own data, saying at a press conference:
<blockquote>This is probably the most informative data. Where are the new cases coming from, right? You want to know what’s generating the new cases, so you know where you can stop them. The troubling information in this, is 74% of the new cases are coming from household gatherings, living room spread. n many ways, you can understand what happened.
You close bars, you close restaurants, you close theaters, you close stadiums, you close mass gatherings, where do people go? They go home, come to my house, they’ll go over to Robert’s house. We’ll invite our friends. We’ll invite our family. Compound that by the holiday season, which is a natural come to my house, my family, my friends, I know we’ll be safe. That is what is driving these numbers.</blockquote>
He added, “Education employees, restaurants and bars, 1.4%. But you’re now down to small numbers, basically, right?”
In reference to his shutdown on indoor dining at restaurants, which was implemented this week, Cuomo said last week, “Indoor dining, which many people have spoken about, it is a generator. We have made strides on indoor dining, by the restrictions we put in place and the safety protocols we put in place. It is still an issue, but it’s much better than it was.”
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/12/15/andrew-cuomo-callously-tells-restaurants-to-be-grateful/">wrote in an op-ed</a>:
<blockquote>He seems to have it in for the city, banning indoor dining only here, though it has the second-lowest case and hospitalization rates in the state. &#8230; But then, there’s no point trying to make sense of his imperious pronouncements. &#8230; Instead of trying to help the thousands of people he’s putting out of work, the author of “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” is helping only himself: He’s hosting a celebrity-studded virtual birthday and holiday reception Thursday night, with tickets from $1,000 to $10,000, with the proceeds going into his political coffers. Apparently, that’s what leadership looks like these days.</blockquote>
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New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo makes an announcement

WATCH: Cuomo Tells Restaurant Owners: Be ‘Happy’ I’ve Shut Down Indoor Dining

Andrew Cuomo

On Tuesday, speaking at Okeechobee Steakhouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who has withstood barrages of criticism from the political Left for his refusal to implement harsh lockdowns, like many Democratic governors across the nation, asserted that restaurants will stay open in Florida. “We just want to send a message: Some may want to shut you down; we want to pull you up,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We’ve got your back.”
DeSantis began, “We’re happy to be here at Okeechobee Steakhouse to really send a message that at a time when folks in our service industries, particularly restaurants, lodging, and hospitality, have kind of taken it on the chin, particularly in other states, where they’ve been completely shut down. We just want to send a message: Some may want to shut you down; we want to pull you up. We’ve got your back.”
“If you’re somebody who’s a waitress or a cook or you’re a family-owned business, you’re an important part of our state,” he continued. “You’re working folks, who are working hard to make a living; you have every right to do that. You can take it to the bank in the state of Florida; you’re going to have that right defended by the governor.”
DeSantis turned to some data: “You know, there’s a lot of talk when it comes to COVID about the kind of infections, and tracing and everything, and at the beginning of this, restaurants in particular were singled out as kind of like, this is a place that’s really problematic. Most of the contact tracing that’s been done has restaurants as very low in terms of where these infections can be traced to. New York just did their big one and put it out I think yesterday or the day before, and they had 1.4% of infections traced to restaurants and bars.”
“So it doesn’t mean it can’t happen here, but I think we have to understand the vast, vast majority of infections are occurring in people’s homes, particularly if you have people getting together,” he surmised. “So closing a restaurant for indoor dining is going to lead to more people doing that in private homes, anyway.”
DeSantis then championed the rights of citizens to make their own, best-informed decisions: “But here’s the thing: even if you think that it’s more than 1.4%, the appropriate response to that is to inform people about situations where you may have a higher risk, not to shut down. Let individuals make decisions about what they’re comfortable doing. I can tell you, we’ve worked with these folks across Florida, and I know Okeechobee’s no different: they put every effort to creating a safe environment and a healthy environment. They’re not going to get customers unless they do that, and I know that that’s what they’ve done here at Okeechobee Steakhouse.”
He concluded, “And so we’re coming up on Christmas; it’s an important time of year for a lot of people, and we just want to let people know that if you’re somebody who’s been working hard, you’re a worker in one of these industries, we’re standing with you 100%. We know what you’ve done; we know what you’ve sacrificed, but we also know how much these jobs mean to you and how much these industries mean to the state of Florida.”
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Florida Governor DeSantis And Government Officials Give Hurricane Season Update At Miami-Dade Emergency Operations Center

WATCH: DeSantis Defends Restaurants, Bars: ‘Some May Want To Shut You Down. We Want To Pull You Up’

Ron DeSantis