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April 6, 2020

COVID-19 Summit: For Struggling Restaurants, the Key Terms are “Shapeshift” and “Break Even”

“It’s really f***ed up right now,” That’s how Robert Egger, founder of DC Central Kitchen, summed up the current restaurant situation on our COVID-19 Virtual Strategy Summit. “I’m sorry dudes, but there’s no other way to put it.”

There’s no doubt that the coronavirus epidemic is wreaking havoc on the hospitality industry, decimating restaurant sales and forcing massive layoffs. So how can restaurants, bars, and catering services innovate to make it to the other side of the pandemic?

We tackled that question during today’s socially-distanced summit. In one of the first panels of the day, Mark Brand, a chef, B-corp owner, brewery manager, and professor (okay, overachiever), spoke with Egger to The Spoon’s Michael Wolf about how restaurants can innovate to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic. Here are a few takeaways for restaurants that came about from the conversation:

Prepare for an uphill battle
Surviving as a restaurant, even in better times, is damn hard. Brand said that — in the very best of times — restauranteurs are making a maximum of 15 percent revenue on each transaction. “Folks think we have more money than we do as restauranteurs,” he joked. Therefore the vast majority of foodservice organizations don’t have a lot of padding to fall back on when their main revenue source, like in-house dining, suddenly goes away.

To survive, you must adapt
One of the biggest challenges facing restaurants is that there’s no blueprint to go off of. “A lot of people are making this up as we go,” Egger told the summit audience. That said, Egger and Brand had a few tips to help foodservice businesses survive the crisis. “The words of the day are ‘shapeshift’ and ‘break even,'” Egger said.

In short: restaurant operations will have to pivot to stay afloat, perhaps branching into new sales channels. Some foodservice spots are also offering purchase incentives, like a 1-to-1 donation where for each meal you purchase, one is donated to someone in need or a healthcare worker fighting COVID-19.

But no matter how many initiatives or pivots restaurants make, all they can really hope to do, Egger says, is break even. Hopefully that will be enough to help them make it to the other side of the coronavirus pandemic.

Another thing to look out for? A smaller menu. “I think there’s a lot of money to be made in a modest menu,” he said. Not only in terms of selection, but also pricing and serving size.

An opportunity for change
The panel wasn’t all doom and gloom. In fact, both Brand and Egger agreed that this crisis could actually help us transform our relationship with food for the better. “There’s a tremendous opportunity to reevaluate the restaurant structure,” Brand said.

Egger agreed, noting that COVID-19 could catalyze us as a society to prioritize our food more highly. “We can make sure that our food is sourced locally, workers are paid, and we can put together a healthy meal,” he said. “We’ll have a great sense of respect for food again.” 

Here’s the full video below.

COVID-19 Summit From The Spoon: Mark Brand and Robert Egger

April 6, 2020

COVID-19 Summit: How to Get Up, Running, and Efficient With Restaurant Delivery/Takeout

At today’s jam-packed yet socially distanced COVID-19 summit, we’ve been exploring the different strategies food businesses can take to survive the sudden changes brought about by coronavirus, a stopped economy, and massive disruptions to daily life. And no other sector in food has been hit harder than the restaurant industry, thanks to mandatory state closures of dining rooms that are forcing businesses to reach for off-premises ordering formats as a lifeline or die trying. 

So how exactly to you grasp that lifeline to keep your business from going under? Today, The Spoon’s Managing Editor Chris Albrecht talked with Sterling Douglass, co-founder and CEO of POS integrator Chowly to find out. Chowly’s platform simplifies (and automates) the process of a restaurant taking orders from multiple sales channels, so Douglass knows a thing or two about restaurants and off-premises orders. Here, I’ve broken his advice down into three different steps restaurants can take in order to get up and running faster and more efficiently with their own off-premises strategies. 

The Spoon's COVID-19 Summit: Sterling Douglas & Building an Off-Premise Business

1. Prepare your staff.

Douglass mentioned that Chowly is currently working with a lot of restaurants that are implementing delivery and takeout strategies for the very first time. And the very first thing he tells them has nothing to do with software or delivery services. Rather, he recommends restaurants examine and prepare their staff for the changes necessary to operate right now.

Consider what roles your workers will play now that there is no more dining room? That doesn’t change much for those in back of house, but what about servers? Can you afford to keep them and, if so, how can they be used to help the off-premises business along?

One thing that changes for everyone is scheduling. Right now, for example, many workers have children at home because of school closures. A workers’ normal schedule might need to be adjusted. Restaurants need to work with their staff to try and accommodate the different situations brought on by social distancing and shelter in place orders. 

2. Get set up with delivery companies. All of them.

Setting up a delivery program isn’t simply a matter of plugging DoorDash into your POS and getting some takeout boxes. Accounts with third-party delivery platforms can, especially now, take weeks to set up — a hardly ideal scenario right now. Chowly, along with other integration companies like Ordermark and Olo, compress a lot of this timeframe so that restaurants don’t have to go through the set of moves for each different delivery partner.

Those decisions include which platforms to work with (all of them, for now), how they want to be integrated (tablets versus the pricier but more efficient direct POS integration), and, once up and running, what food they’ll serve.

There’s also menu pricing to consider. Right now, independent restaurants and smaller chains without the deep pockets of, say, Starbucks, don’t get much negotiating power when it comes to commission fees they must pay delivery aggregators. Douglass suggested in the session that higher priced items on third-party marketplaces. That puts the burden on consumers, which could be risky in a recession-bound economy but does shift some of the financial stress off the shoulders of restaurants themselves.

Unless you also run your own driver fleet, the process for setting up delivery and takeout is fairly similar. Douglass said Chowly encourages potential customers to do both.

3. Get virtual.

Virtual restaurants have gotten more popular and more numerous over the last year. Imagine al of the above steps — delivery integration, a smiple menu, etc.—applied to a restaurant concept that doesn’t have a dining room and relies on delivery and takeout to reach customers. 

In today’s session, Douglass pointed out a few such concepts, most notably those Grubhub has been doing with restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You and non-restaurant food brands like Bon Apétit and Whole30. The rise of ghost kitchens has also led to many more virtual restaurants, and even virtual restaurant networks like Keatz.

This is not a step most restaurants are even in a position to consider right now. But it doesn’t but it doesn’t hurt to think about long term strategies, particularly since we don’t yet know what the restaurant industry is going to look like when we all finally emerge from our houses again. Right now, getting your operations ready for delivery and takeout and getting on delivery platforms should be the number one priorities for restaurants for the foreseeable future.

April 6, 2020

NPD Group: Restaurant Customer Transactions Are Down 42 Percent

Restaurant customer transactions dropped 42 percent during the week ending in March 29 compared to the same time period one year ago, according to new numbers from The NPD Group. 

While dismal, to say the least, those numbers aren’t surprising. With most states now mandating restaurants keep dining rooms closed for the foreseeable future, many businesses have lost their primary sales channel. Full-service and casual dining restaurants (think Olive Garden or your local Mexican restaurant) that still rely on foot traffic for the majority of their sales are having to quickly pivot to off-premises models that offer delivery and takeout orders. Restaurants designed for an in-dining room experience are having trouble making this transition smoothly and quickly.

Reflecting that issue, NPD notes that while QSRs (e.g., Wendy’s) saw a transaction decline of 40 percent, full-service restaurants shouldered the burden of a much larger drop, at 79 percent.

“The transaction declines partially reflect the struggle of on-premise restaurants to pivot to off-premise models,” NPD industry advisor David Portalatin said in a statement. “Many restaurants that are attempting to make the move are doing so with limited menu offerings and without the benefit of drive-thru lanes. Anecdotally, some operators are giving up the cause and closing altogether.”

Some of those closures are temporary; others, sadly not. Recent numbers from The National Restaurant Association show that 3 percent of restaurants have closed permanently and another 11 percent are expected to this month.  

Some restaurant-tech companies, like Allset and Presto, have shifted their focus to providing products and services that could make to-go operations more efficient. Others, like Ordermark and Chowly, are waiving certain fees for restaurants that want to get quickly up and running with delivery. Meanwhile, a number of charities, fundraisers, and other initiatives are working to provide relief to impacted businesses and their workers.

It’s too soon to tell how effective any one of these solutions is in terms of saving more businesses in the long term. Given that major restaurant chains as well as the smaller businesses are now struggling financially, even cautious optimism feels naive right now.

For us average consumers who can afford it, the best course of action right now is to keep ordering takeout from local restaurants and contributing to relief funds, virtual tip jars, and other online initiatives. Soon enough, the numbers will tell us if these moves can make a big enough difference.

April 6, 2020

Restaurants Can Now Sell Impossible Foods’ “Beef” Directly to Customers

There’s a new silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic: more of us can now get our hands on Impossible Foods’ plant-based beef. The startup announced today on Linkedin that the FDA will now allow all of Impossible’s restaurant partners to sell the Impossible Burger directly to customers in 5 lb. bricks, 1/4 lb. patties, and 1/3 lb. patties.

In order to sell the burgers, the restaurants must give customers a printed out copy of a PDF outlining the ingredients and allergens in the Impossible Burger. Pricing is at the discretion of the restaurant itself.

Admittedly, this initiative is probably not going to radically alter the course of any foodservice establishments. Restaurants are struggling to stay afloat after COVID-19 has forced the vast majority to shutter their dining rooms and pivot to takeout and delivery only. The numbers are sobering: over 3 percent of restaurants are already permanently closed, and NPD reports that restaurant customer transactions declined by 42 percent in the last week of March, compared to the same time period the year before.

Depending on how they price the uncooked Impossible Burger, restaurants are still likely able to make more money selling a finished Impossible product (i.e., a cheeseburger) than the raw material. But if they can’t sell enough of those, selling the raw product is a good way to get rid of inventory — especially if the restaurant is preparing to shut its doors, either temporarily or permanently.

In the end, this move might be more of a boon for consumers. According to NPR, sales of plant-based meat were up roughly 280 percent over the first two weeks of March. However, Impossible Foods’ ground “meat” is only available in select grocery stores in California and mid-Atlantic states. At the same time, over 15,000 restaurants sell Impossible Foods. If they do choose to sell to customers, that will dramatically increase the number of people who can buy uncooked Impossible “meat” to cook at home.

In Seattle, I have been sadly unable to get my hands on the plant-based “bleeding” burgers (outside of restaurants). Impossible’s new initiative will give folks like me, who love Impossible burgers and want to find ways to support their local restaurants, another opportunity to do so. It may be a relatively small silver lining, but in times like these we’ll take what we can get.

You can search for nearby restaurants that sell Impossible Burgers here. Give them a ring to see if they’re selling the raw plant-based burgers, and how much it’ll cost you to get your heme fix.

March 27, 2020

Survey: 3% of Restaurants Are Permanently Closed. More Will Follow

The National Restaurant Association this week released some rather gloomy statistics around COVID-19’s impact on restaurants so far. A survey of more than 4,000 U.S. restaurant owners and operators found that 3 percent have already permanently closed their restaurants, while another 11 percent say they anticipate doing so within the next 30 days.

Those that have remained open (at least for off-premises orders) have also had to make adjustments. Besides the switch to delivery and takeout orders, restaurants have also had to reduce staff as well as cut back their operating hours.

On that note, even mega-chains have not been immune. This week alone, The Cheesecake Factory furloughed 41,000 employees and is in talks about possibly deferring and/or adjusting its rent. Yum Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC, has outright closed 7,000 restaurants around the world, which affects hundreds of jobs. McDonald’s completely shuttered operations in the U.K., and has reduced hours (and menu items) in the U.S. 

According to The Association, roughly half of restaurant owners/operators “anticipate more layoffs and hourly reductions over the next 30 days.”

This infographic, also from The Association, breaks down the situation and its unsettling numbers pretty clearly. Notably, it states that “Restaurants can’t just switch their operations over to takeout and delivery and be fine. This is not an option for everyone in our industry.” And indeed, only 54 percent of operators/owners surveyed by The Association have changed their business model to off-premises for the time being.

Unlike QSRs, which typically offer food that travels well and was designed to eat quickly, many restaurants specialize in meals meant to be eaten in the dining room. It’s not a matter of simply throwing existing dishes in a box, and part of developing an off-premises-only model involves adjusting the menu. More items that travel well and family-style options are popular recommendations for restaurants.

Even so, doing delivery is expensive. Industry figures are telling businesses to join as many third-party platforms as they can right now — no small feat when you consider the exorbitant commission fees. Some companies, which are essentially third-party aggregators for third-party delivery platforms, can speed that process up by handling the bulk of the work. They do not necessarily guarantee better commission rates for restaurants, though.  

All of which is to say, unfortunately, we can expect the number of employee layoffs and furloughs, shuttered operations, and reduced hours to keep going up, at least in the very near future. The $2 trillion stimulus package that was passed this week will offer some relief for restaurants. The bleak reality is that it probably won’t entirely stop the bleeding.

March 23, 2020

Territory Foods Lets Restaurants Package Pre-Made Meals for Subscription Delivery

A byproduct of this global pandemic is that restaurants are being forced to try new models to stay in business as people are increasingly told to shelter in place and social distance.

We’ve seen dine-in restaurants pivot to delivery and curbside pickup. But Territory Foods this week launched a new initiative to give restaurants another possible sales channel in the form of weekly subscriptions.

Territory Foods may sound familiar to Spoon readers. They took over serving Kettlebell Kitchen’s customers after Kettlebell abruptly shut down last year. Territory provides an operations and logistics platform for restaurants and chefs to manage the ordering and delivery of pre-packed, ready-made meals.

Basically, instead of a customer ordering one meal one evening from a restaurant, they could order a number of meals in advance and have them packed up, kept cold and delivered all at once. Restaurants just prepare the meals and hand them off to Territory, which handles all the ordering and distribution.

“Through our platform, folks can order meals direct to their home,” Stefan Niemczyk, Head of Culinary for Territory Foods told me by phone this week.

This type of subscription approach offers restaurants a few benefits, according to Niemczyk. First, obviously, it’s another sales channel for restaurants in these troubled times where every dollar counts. Plus, that revenue is frontloaded and gives restaurants an accurate sense of how much food they need to prepare. Second, Territory can expand the geographic footprint of a restaurant, so a restaurant in LA can serve people in San Diego.

Additionally, Territory has a full culinary team on staff. They can help restaurants put together menus based on data from existing customers, cater to specific diets, and also figure out how to design and prepare each meal for optimal travel.

Right now, Territory is available in the Bay Area and all of Southern California, as well as Washington DC, Baltimore, Virginia, parts of New York City including Manhattan, parts of New Jersey, and Dallas and Houston, TX. Niemczyk wouldn’t get specific about pricing, saying only that it’s a revenue share on a per meal basis that changes depending on the meal concept.

While this pandemic is pushing restaurant owners into new avenues of revenue, the biggest barrier to trying something like Territory might be the restaurant business itself. Faced with a revamping of their businesses, can restaurants stay alive long enough to even try something like Territory?

At least Territory seems to be giving restaurants one more way to get a fighting chance.

March 20, 2020

Week in Restaurants: Now What?

Dining rooms are empty. Restaurants must go off-premises or go out of business. Some will go out of business regardless. And for every off-premise order fulfilled, quarantined customers get their food — but drivers, cooks, and others still working are at risk of exposure to COVID-19.

The restaurant industry is now undergoing the most disruptive crisis it has ever seen; one that has already permanently changed the business. At The Spoon, we’re as confused and frustrated as anyone else. But despite having a lot of questions and few answers right now, we’re continuing to provide coverage of the ongoing fallout, talking to founders, servers, companies, and the restaurants themselves in an attempt to make sense of everything. With that in mind, here are a few more pieces of news from the week. 

Stay safe. Stay home. Tip your drivers.

National Restaurant Association Asks for Restaurant Aid 

Earlier this week, the National Restaurant Association sent a proposal to the Trump Administration asking for aid for restaurants. The proposal, which The Spoon obtained a copy of, asks for direct financial relief for restaurants in the form of loans, insurance, and new tax measures. The Association noted it anticipates restaurant sales to decline $225 billion over the next three months.

Still No Delivery From In-N-Out

SoCal QSR legend In-N-Out announced this week it is closing its dining rooms. But unlike other larger restaurant brands, In-N-Out does not offer delivery — nor does it intend to now. As Nation’s Restaurant News points out, the chain has famously stayed away from third-party platforms (and even sued one), and for now will only offer drive-thru and takeout orders. Whether or not this lack of delivery becomes a hindrance for In-N-Out as California tightens its restrictions remains to be seen.

Domino’s is Hiring 10,000 Workers

Domino’s said it will need roughly 10,000 new workers, full and part time, to meet the demand for orders now that dining rooms are shuttered and customers are staying home. In a press release, the chain noted open positions include “delivery experts, pizza makers, customer service representatives, managers and assistant managers.” In a separate statement, Domino’s outlined the things it is doing to ensure cleanliness and sanitation, including contactless delivery, additional training for employees, and improved sanitation practices. The company is expanding its paid sick leave policy for employees during this time.

Sevenrooms Launches Direct Delivery Feature

Guest management platform Sevenrooms launched a new feature this week called Direct Delivery that gives restaurants more ownership over their customer data on delivery and takeout orders in the hopes of being able to offer them more relevant marketing. According to an email from Sevenrooms, the feature can be directly integrated into a restaurant POS system, too. For the next 90 days, existing and prospective Sevenrooms customers can add the feature on at no extra cost. 

 

March 20, 2020

According to Yelp and Foursquare Data, Pizza, Fast Food, and CSAs are Up in Wake of Coronavirus

There’s a lot of news swirling around there about how COVID-19 is hurting local businesses, and for restaurants, things are looking especially grim. But what does the data actually say? Yelp and Foursquare recently released some analysis of internal data that gives insight into how our relationship with restaurants, dining, and more is shifting dramatically during this very abnormal time.

Yelp notes that many of the changes in restaurant and food business are a direct result of “the home’s rising status as the place to eat.” Considering we’re supposed to be social distancing — and a growing number of restaurants are forced to close their doors to diners, anyway — that’s not exactly surprising.

The numbers are pretty bleak for restaurants. Yelp reports that U.S. consumer interest in restaurants has fallen by about 54 percent. They only looked at data from the data range of March 8 to 18, so the number has probably increased as more and more cities and states restrict dine-in capabilities for restaurants. Simultaneously, Yelp notes that delivery and take-out are “2X more popular than usual.”

What sort of food is popular during the corona-pocalypse? Basically, anything that is suited for delivery and pickup. That means dim sum restaurants, French restaurants, and other spots geared towards more leisurely meals eaten in the restaurant dining room are suffering. Sales from food trucks and breweries are also down.

The news isn’t bad for all restaurants, though — some are actually thriving in the new normal of COVID-19. Sales from pizzerias and fast food restaurants are up 44 percent and 64 percent, respectively. Unsurprisingly, Yelp says that sales of beer, wine, and spirits are up 63 percent. And in your daily dose of heart-warming news, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), or deliveries of farm produce, are up a whopping 405 percent.

Foursquare released its own data examining the change in foodservice foot traffic from February 19 to March 13. Like Yelp, it showed that QSRs are actually experiencing an uptick in traffic, though it cited a much smaller rise of 11 percent. Foursquare noted that QSR visits are down in areas with higher infection rates, like Washington state, but up in areas of the country with lower alert levels.

Seems like people still love their chicken sandwiches. [Photo: Foursquare]

Yelp points out that these shifts haven’t affected all of the U.S. in the same way. The impact is most significant near the coasts and more muted in the Midwest and Southeast, despite the fact that many cities and states have mandated dine-in closures in those areas. However, Yelp notes that every state reflects, at least to some degree, “the new reality of the coronavirus economy — that is, until it changes quickly again.”

To help restaurants struggling with this new reality, Yelp announced today that it would contribute $25 million to support local restaurants in the form of waived advertising fees and even free advertising.

That’s nice and all, but all the advertising in the world might not be enough to keep restaurants afloat. Some spots don’t have enough saved to keep paying rent/staff with significant diminished income. Others aren’t able to effectively pivot to a delivery- or pickup-only menu.

I don’t want to end this post on a glum note, but faced with cold, hard numbers, it can be hard not to feel scared for the future of local restaurants. So do what you can to support — go buy a gift card, tip a bartender virtually, or just place a pick-up order to support your favorite neighborhood spot. Maybe together we can help change some of these numbers.

March 18, 2020

When You Drink at Home (and You Will), Tip a Chattanooga Service Worker with Chatt.us

We are all for finding bright spots amidst all the dark news the COVID-19 virus is wreaking across the food industry. With a growing list of cities and states forcing restaurants and bars to cease in-person service, a lot of waiters, bussers, bartenders, dishwashers and more are being laid off.

While relief groups are being set up and one hopes that the federal government will do their job and provide assistance, we came across one novel solution that we had to share. The website chatt.us is now letting you tip a service worker via Venmo or the Cash app.

Chatt.us describes itself this way:

Help the Chattanooga Service Industry

Every time you have a drink at home during social distancing, consider tipping a local service industry worker through Venmo or Cash App. Refresh this page to get a new person to support.

Right now, service industry people are severely impacted by social distancing and quarantine. Lower amounts of patrons and restaurants closing will be tough on everyone. Every little bit helps.

So when you’re making that vodka soda after trying to teach your elementary school son or daughter about how to calculate perimeters and areas while also putting in a full day’s home of remote work, you can visit the site and offer up a tip as a literally random act of kindness.

Chatt.us didn’t have a whole lot of, well, any information about who created the site, but God bless ’em, whoever they are. Hopefully the site inspires people in more cities to do the same.

Bright spots, everyone. They light the way. We’ve been compiling a list of companies and services that are helping out the restaurant industry during this pandemic. If you know of interesting solutions (local or national) to help those in the food industry out, drop us a line and let us know!

March 17, 2020

New York City’s Restaurant Traffic is Down by Almost 70%. That’s Before the Lockdown

This weekend I wrote about how restaurant traffic had seen precipitous drops last week in places like Washington State and New York City due to coronavirus. That trend has only gotten worse.

As of Sunday, restaurant traffic drops in big US cities hit hard by COVID-19 were eye-popping. Using OpenTable data, I charted the year over year traffic from about a month ago (Feb 18th, the first available date using OpenTable’s data) and compared it to year over year traffic on Sunday.

New York City’s restaurant traffic was down by 69%, while Seattle’s restaurant traffic had dropped by 62%. Despite being two of the earliest hotspots, these were not the biggest drops. San Francisco restaurant traffic was down by 72% on Sunday compared to a year earlier, while Boston’s traffic was down 70%.

It should all be noted that this has all happened before the start of mandatory restaurant dine-in shutdowns, which are beginning this week in New York City, Seattle and San Francisco. Clearly, these numbers are going to get worse.

It’s also worth noting that in cities where there are shutdowns, delivery is still allowed and those restaurants that can make the pivot to all-delivery models are attempting to do so. Even Canlis, Seattle’s legendary $300 a plate restaurant, has closed its dining room and opened up a burger-pick-up drive through lane.

Still, businesses that were built to feed diners inside a space cannot pivot on a dime and we’re seeing significant disruption to even the biggest names in dining. Danny Meyer announced the temporary shut downs of his restaurants, following the likes of Tom Douglas in Seattle. José Andrés, being the great José Andrés, has shut down his restaurants and turned them into community kitchens to feedd COVID-impacted families.

We’ll continue to cover the impact of coronavirus as we move into forced closings. For those restaurants looking to ramp up their delivery business, we’ve started to gather a list of companies lending a helping hand here.

March 16, 2020

Updated: Cities and States With Restaurant Closures Due to Coronavirus Concerns

Across the U.S., cities as well as entire states are requiring restaurants, bars, wineries, and other food/bev businesses to close their doors to help stop the spread of coronavirus. At the start of today, several had already done so, and that list has grown longer.

It’s worth nothing that without clear direction from the Federal government, cities and states themselves are having to make the call on whether businesses should remain open, reduce capacity, or use some other measure to avoid crowds of people congregating. This list, which we will be updating regularly throughout the week, reflects the most current news of the closures.  

In most cases, restaurants are allowed to continue fulfilling delivery and takeout orders.

Northeast:

  • Connecticut: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Massachusetts: Dine-in service banned until April 17
  • New Jersey: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • New Hampshire: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • New York (including New York City): Dine-in service banned indefinitely 
  • Pennsylvania: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Rhode Island: Dine-in service banned indefinitely 
  • Vermont: Dine-in service banned until April 6

Mid-Atlantic:

  • Virginia: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Maryland: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Washington, D.C.: Dine-in service banned indefinitely

South:

  • Atlanta, GA: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Austin, TX: Dine-in service banned until May 1
  • Dallas, TX: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Kentucky: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Louisiana: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Nashville, Tennessee: Some bars closed, restaurants must reduce capacity to 50 percent
  • North Carolina: Dine-in service banned indefinitely

Midwest:

  • Illinois: Dine-in service banned until March 30
  • Indiana: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Iowa: Dine-in service banned until March 31
  • Michigan: Dine-in service banned indefinitely 
  • Ohio: Dine-in service banned indefinitely 

West:

  • Arizona: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • California: Guidance issued, Dine-in service banned until March 31 in Los Angeles
  • Las Vegas, Nevada: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Denver, Colorado: Dine-in service banned indefinitely
  • Washington State: Dine-in service banned indefinitely

March 14, 2020

This One Graph Shows How Bad Things Are For Restaurants Because of Coronavirus

If pictures tell a story, the one below is not a pretty one for restaurants:

The chart, which I created using data from OpenTable, shows the percentage difference year over year on each day for diners from February 18th all the way through yesterday, March 13th. OpenTable has data available for each state (you can check your own state here), but for this chart I included those areas most impacted by Coronavirus as well as Florida, which seems to be emerging as a hotspot. I’ve also included the data for the total of the United States.

What does it show? That restaurant traffic went from what looked like decent growth in places like Washington state just a month ago to simply dropping off a cliff. Data for yesterday, March 13th, showed Washington state restaurant traffic was down by 53%. New York, also grappling with an outbreak, traffic was down 54%.

While traffic hadn’t dropped to the same extent in California or Florida, it’s trending that way, and the United States as a whole has seen traffic drop by 36%.

What’s struck me is the velocity of the decline. Last week total US traffic at restaurants was down 8% compared to the previous year. Just a week later, the drop was over four times that.

Looking beyond the US, the picture doesn’t get any better. Below is a chart showing how coronavirus is hitting countries like Mexico, Germany and Ireland.

Interestingly, Ireland’s restaurant industry saw the biggest overall drop this past week, with its restaurant traffic down by 54% as of yesterday, compared with just 13% a week prior.

COVID-19’s impact on the restaurant industry is expected to only get worse in coming days. We’ve seen some of the industry’s biggest and most successful names already grappling with this change and having to furlough or lay people off. Because of this, we’re looking to highlight some of those companies stepping up to help. If your company is offering resources or discounts to help restaurants impacted by coronavirus, drop us a line at tips@thespoon.tech.

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