There’s something wrong with restaurant meals lately – and a good portion of that is the labor shortage. The pandemic has really hurt restaurants. They have had to deal with wave after wave of lockdowns, bans on indoor dining, and strict monitoring of mask and vaccine mandates, as well as supply disruptions and a lack of staff.
American workers quit their jobs in record numbers in 2021, and the restaurant industry was among the worst hit due to low wages, a lack of benefits, COVID-19 risks, and increasingly rude customers. In the near future, this situation is not likely to improve, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Labor shortages aren’t just affecting restaurants in terms of finding waitstaff and cooks. Manufacturers and distributors are experiencing staffing problems, so some deliveries are arriving late and some products are difficult to find. According to the National Restaurant Association, 96 percent of restaurant operators faced supply delays or shortages of key ingredients in 2021.
Lastly, there is the soaring inflation, which is raising the prices of ingredients. Most restaurants are having to change their business models because of these disruptions. Some have shortened their opening hours, closed their dining rooms, and simplified or culled their menus. Others have raised their prices.
The diners are noticing this. 61% of Americans, according to a survey by data provider Premise, have seen a drop in the quality of service at restaurants since the pandemic started. Sixty percent said they noticed restaurants were open for fewer hours, and three-quarters said fewer choices were available on the menus.
In addition, 46% reported enjoying dining out less as a result of these changes. These disruptions are lowering the quality of restaurant food. According to an owner of a restaurant in Maine, for example, some of her ingredients orders, such as salad dressing, had been substituted for items of lower quality because of the supply-chain chaos.
In addition, restaurants have less choice because they can’t get the right ingredients or they aren’t as profitable as they once were. Chefs and cooks are leaving some restaurants, leaving them with fewer kitchen staff than usual, and the food quality is declining as they train new hires. Restaurant service has also declined. Over the past year, signs warning of understaffing and slow service and advising diners to be nice to their servers have appeared in restaurant windows, and diners have complained about long waits on review sites like TripAdvisor.
To boost service for dine-in customers, some understaffed restaurants have even stopped taking out and delivering food. Colleen Kelley, co-owner of Kelly’s Gingernut Pub in Cape Charles, Virginia, told Insider that the pub prioritized dine-in customers to ensure fast service and good food. But sometimes orders were slower than usual, and diners weren’t always patient, Kelley said. ‘They get mad, and then you get a bad review’.
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