Restaurants make up 4% of our GDP
and employ 11 million people,
and 16 million people if you look
at the other people in the supply chain.
When COVID-19 struck,
it affected all corners of the economy,
but the restaurant industry was hit especially hard.
The pandemic has forced us to move a lot faster
and ahead than we initially had planned to.
[Rep. Earl Blumenauer] Employment rate is twice
the national average.
And we're at risk of losing, permanently,
tens of thousands of restaurants.
The restaurant industry as a whole
has lost an estimated $290 billion in revenue
from 2020 to 2021 with approximately
90,000 restaurants across the United States
closing permanently.
As the pandemic continues,
restaurants are forced to constantly adapt and evolve.
There's an immense amount of opportunity
for collective innovation
and collaboration as we move through this phase
and into a recovery phase,
and I'm excited about what we can create
and how we can stitch this industry
and our communities back together
better than they ever were before.
So which restaurants will survive
and what will restaurants look like in this new world?
Pre pandemic 2019,
that has a lot of great memories.
We actually opened fourth quarter of 2019.
We had, you know, a full staff.
We were actually becoming like a family.
Getting into the flow of things.
During the holidays we were extra busy because we were new.
We were rocking.
Business was good.
It was looking likely that, you know,
I'd maybe be able to start paying myself
at the end of that summer.
At the beginning, it was easier to have the mindset of,
okay, we're just getting through this week by week,
month by month.
And then towards the end,
it started getting really tiring.
You know, there's only so much of, um,
we're just hanging on, hanging on that you can do.
And we did. And we, I felt like
we did a great job through all of that,
but at the end I was starting to lose sleep.
I was starting to be concerned because we were so new.
We didn't have a lot of cash flow.
When March 15th came,
there was a lot of trepidation.
Just the fear of the unknown existed.
I was paralyzed. We were devastated.
No one had experienced that before.
That was a dire moment for me to say that, you know,
I don't know when you're going to come back to work.
I had no answers, no one provided us with guidance.
They really struggled
on trying to figure out, okay, can we do a takeout menu?
How are we going to do that?
They were so focused on the customer experience
inside the four walls of the restaurant
and shifting to, okay,
we need to make revenue.
We need to figure out a delivery platform
and a takeout menu.
Usually the larger chains that had invested in digital,
that had invested in a mobile order and pay app,
or some sort of online ordering,
they were able to pivot and much quicker
than those that had not invested in technology
and had not invested
in a digital customer experience
or an ordering platform.
It was a day by day learning process.
It was a learning curve every single day.
Unfortunately, some of these things, you know,
cost money, you know, they require financial resources
that we simply did not have.
All of those shifts
and those decisions were made independently
for different restaurants.
And depending on where you were on the spectrum of
technology, comfortability, safety and the local guidelines.
And so you had different restaurants doing different things.
Even if these adaptations were applied,
restaurant owners still faced supply chain issues,
labor shortages, and losses of revenue.
Restaurants were struggling
getting certain products.
They were struggling getting certain meats.
And then there were certain paper products,
whether it be straws or paper or.
So that was a huge hindrance.
You can't just flip a switch back on
and have all the products
that you need immediately flowing through the supply chain.
And so restaurants are faced with increased costs
on products, ranging from proteins to cooking oils,
to even things as simple as a to go box.
We are in a massive labor shortage.
We have a supply chain shortage in terms of actual goods
and services that we're able to procure.
I've had to change my menu so many times
because I'm not able to procure everything
that's needed for a certain recipes.
I would say from staff,
we need quality staff and we need training for our staff.
As a result, quality does suffer on many ends
and the level of service you do have
does suffer a little bit.
Help also came
in the form of federal assistance.
The restaurant revitalization fund.
The restaurant revitalization fund provides debt-free
support in the amount of annual revenue loss from 2019
and 2020 with special provisions for businesses
that opened in 2019 and 2020.
The restaurant revitalization fund grants
were awarded to businesses whose primary purpose
is that they are a place where people gather
to consume food or drink.
So your neighborhood coffee shop,
your favorite date night restaurant would qualify.
Then they needed to demonstrate
that they lost revenue in 2020.
And they did that by providing things like tax returns
and point of sale reports.
[Rep. Earl Blumenauer] We were able
to secure $28.6 billion dollars
to be able to help these independent restaurants.
Over a hundred thousand grants were distributed.
But passing a bill
and actually getting the money
into the hands of struggling restaurateurs
are two different things.
As soon as the application went live,
I got my application in within moments,
and then I got an approval.
And then I got a letter stating that because of a lawsuit
that had happened,
the SBA was not able to pay out those funds.
[Rep. Earl Blumenauer] The need far outstripped that.
The fund was basically exhausted in just a few days.
That just felt
like a slap across the face
and wondering what's next,
and how are we going to be able to keep up with this demand
and grow without cashflow?
We have no cash reserves.
We sound a bit like a broken record,
constantly calling our members of Congress and telling them
that restaurants aren't okay.
Despite appearances.
[Rep. Earl Blumenauer] Well, bear in mind,
we've been dealing with the near collapse of the economy.
There are massive needs
that have developed all across the country for health.
There's a lot of demand.
There's a lot of competition.
There are over $60 billion of needs that remained
when the fund was exhausted.
So what we're trying to do is replenish it so
that everybody who was eligible and applied
would be able to be taken care of.
We have a situation
where restaurants are still dealing with the up
and down enclosures,
increased costs,
hesitant consumers.
So they really need financial assistance
to give them the foundation
to be able to continue to operate
and to continue to recover as we ride out this wave.
If you drive anywhere in the US
and you see a restaurant,
there's going to be a sign outside that says help wanted,
or that they're enticing people
with a $15 per hour incentive,
or some, some restaurants have gone to $17 an hour
because they can't staff their restaurants.
We have one member of our coalition
who has over $1.5 million in deferred rent payments.
You're not going to pay that off
with just one busy Saturday.
And at the end of the day,
it's not all about the money.
Health is more important than business
at the end of the day.
And if we need to shut down because it's saving lives,
we'll do it.
That's why we stayed take out only
because we were too small to space people out appropriately,
but that's scary.
Despite the obstacles
and the delta variant threatening to
beat back the progress they've made,
some restaurant owners remain cautiously optimistic
for the future.
I have a lot of trepidation about the fall
and winter, cause we all know
that the more people come in doors,
the more closer contact you become with people that,
that the virus can spread faster.
The pandemic happening,
gave me a chance to kind of step back
and reevaluate our operation.
You know, the kitchen is very, very small.
It's a two person kitchen.
And just to kind of see how it is from their standpoint
and, you know, just find ways to be more efficient.
I don't think
that the restaurants will go to a fully automated platform.
I do feel like there will be a healthy balance
as they try to figure out the labor
and wage shortage between automation and human labor.
We need consumers, you know,
obviously to show up and support our small businesses,
but we need patience and understanding.
And if a restaurant is going to require you to wear a mask,
it's not what they want to do, that's not fun for them.
It's what they need to do to make sure
that their employees aren't sick
or that the economy doesn't shut down again.
We do need them to continue dining out
in any way that they feel comfortable,
whether that's sitting on a patio,
whether it's purchasing to go food,
going inside dining,
which in some places is quite safe and lovely.
It's also to be patient.
These restaurants may not have your favorite dish right now
because the supply chain isn't allowing them
to purchase the ingredients they need.
Also, you might notice that prices have increased
and there's only so much you can squash down a menu price,
when everything that is going into making your dinner,
whether that's the ingredients
or the folks preparing your food,
has a price.
[Rep. Earl Blumenauer] The restaurant industry
has stepped up.
They've provided critical service.
They've been innovative.
And in many cases,
they have stepped up to help people
who otherwise wouldn't have access to this healthy food.
Restaurants are going to be front
and center of any sort of economic recovery.
They deserve our support.
One of the silver linings
that you don't see when you're dining
is that these independent restaurants
across the country have always been the places
where you go when you need help,
whether it's donating something to the little league team
or the school auction,
or just creating an incredible environment
where you can go hang out with your girlfriends
after a really bad day.
They've always been giving.
And this is the first time
that they've really had to ask for help.
And I think that this community has found their voice,
and found how powerful their voices can be
in creating change,
not just for them,
but for their communities.