I’m surprised by some of these stories. I’m a big fast food person, and I haven’t noticed longer lines or slower lines recently, with the exception of Burger King, where the lines are slow but not all that long. Any other place, Whataburger, McDonalds, Hunan Express, Panda Express, KFC, Popeys, the various local taquerias, etc., are all looking like they did pre-pandemic.
I’ve been asking myself this question about In-an-Out for decades. Those lines and wait times are nothing new.
I see lots of signs saying to be patient because of staffing shortages but while I’m there they seem to have enough workers. A couple of regular restaurants I don’t go to have cut back their hours but the fast food places seem to be doing ok. The ones that are slow now were slow a year or two ago.
Central NH here.
Local McDonalds and Burger King seem to be somewhat back to normal Pre-Covis levels of business.
Local Dunkin’ Donuts pretty busy as well though they occasionally have sign on door saying they closed early due to staffing shortages.
At least two local convenience stores close at 10 PM now instead being open 24/7 due to staff shortage(though I believe their gas pumps are still open if you have a card.)
Around here there are 2 places that often have long waits. The first is a local Mexican drive-thru with the best breakfast burritos in the state. From 7am on they are packed, with a line around the building and out to the street. The other is a weird triangle of land down next to I-10, with a Chik-fil-a, Bakers, In-N-Out and Corky’s all sharing one access road. Utter madness most hours of the day and night.
The Vegas area seems to be very, very bad, at least in my current experience. A number of places around here have shortened their hours due to lack of staffing, or put up signs like “Hours May Vary.”
I was at a DQ Grill & Chill this past Saturday afternoon that had just two people working in the whole store. I was the second car in line, but it took 15 minutes to get through. The poor woman working the window was visibly frazzled and very apologetic. A day later, I went back for a dessert, and encountered the same situation (albeit with two different employees).
I’ve also started seeing a lot of fast casual type restaurants that you’d expect to be open seven days a week that are now closed for one or two of those days, including a local Chipotle.
Anecdotal:
Before the lockdown first began, i was eating more fast food than a person should. I was mildly obese.
When the lockdown started, i had no access to fast food, as i don’t drive. I still have a gut, but my pelvic area flattened in the first couple WEEKS of the lockdown. It was like magic! It also helped that i was worked like a dog around that time.
I can get fast food now, but I’m so happy with my weight loss that I’m making an effort to get in shape now.
We’ve got some crazy lines for places like Panera. They’ve had to close down ordering several times given that demand was far outpacing supply and staffing capabilities. Same for Panda Express. Also, I’ve noticed that the lines for Starbucks are ridiculous. Doesn’t matter what time of the day or night you stop - they’re usually wrapped around whatever strip mall the shop is located in. If I really want a fix, I just head over to Target or Barnes & Noble. It’s way faster, I get to look at books and people are way less pissed. I don’t understand people who willingly join a drive through line like that and get mad when they have to wait. What’d they expect?!
I drive by the local Chick Fil A every day and see obscenely long lines. I have mixed feelings about this.
They might be long, but they move VERY quickly. I was once in a Chick Fil A line that I estimate to have been about 20 vehicles long, and made it though the line in around 5 - 10 minutes. Having a limited menu and people outside taking the orders and payment of everyone in line speeds thing up more than you might expect.
Raising Cane’s employs these exact same strategies, and has an even more limited menu than CFA, but they still manage to be slow to very slow. I assume they’re cooking things to order, because otherwise, I don’t understand how it can take as long as it does.
Around here (Anderson, IN,) it’s spotty. Wendy’s is usually fairly quick, but the other night, they told everybody, “There will be at least a 20 minute wait.” We went across the street to Taco Bell, where nobody was in line. Subway is usually pretty good, but a week ago, after having placed an order on line, there was a long wait because there was just one guy running the whole shop.
I’ve had some long wait times at slow food restaurants since the pandemic hit, but the fast food restaurants around coastal southern California seem to be pretty much as before. In N Out always has crazy lines. Certain Taco Bell drive-thrus get backed up from time to time, as always. But the lines move fast.
It’s not just minimum wage jobs that are having trouble hiring and retaining employees. My organization pays quite well for a public interest firm, yet we’re hemorrhaging attorneys. The more people leave, the worse it gets for those who stay behind. In my darker moments, I start to think $17 an hour to work the register at In N Out doesn’t sound so bad.
Some of the Chipotles around here are so overloaded that I just don’t eat there anymore. With the understaffing and upper management forcing the online ordering thing down their throats with no restraints put on the system they just can’t keep up with the demand. The quality of the food and cleanliness of the stores suffers because of it. The food got pretty disgusting.
The nearest Chick Fil A by me is near Teterboro Airport. At the height of the pandemic it looked like some sort of military processing center like you see in apocalypse movies. Tents and lines of cars and people with iPads taking orders and processing people. It was actually very efficient.
But generally, most of the food and coffee places have become populated with dipshits. They are understaffed, undertrained, rude, and inept.
My local Starbucks used to be very efficient. The manager and some key staff recognize me by name. Now, no matter how few people are there, everything takes forever. Like today I order a cake pop for my daughter. Why do I have to wait ten minutes after I pay for you to fucking go over to the box of cake pops and hand it to me? Yeah, I get that the little computer tells the other minion the orders as you receive them, but shouldn’t I have some degree of priority for actually coming down here in fucking person and ordering something that takes no actual preparation? Instead of staring at the bacon sandwich cook for 2 minutes, just hand me the cake pop so my daughter has something to occupy her time instead of tearing your store apart while I wait 20 minutes for my black coffee to queue up.
Not sure how that benefits anyone. The employees are out of work, the restaurant is out of business, and the neighborhood has one fewer place to eat.
I assume those former employees still have rent to pay?
Many have found it’s easier to replace a taxable $400/week income (40hrs x $10) which comes to about $327 after taxes, etc, than they expected pre-pandemic. So they never came back.
Also, as I’ve been sure, a number of these employees are now dead w/ COVID - while the overall national impact on unemployment levels is largely negligible, on a localized… or even restaurant-by-restaurant level… COVID may matter re: how it has affected operations.
But, @msmith537, to your question, it’s just not that hard to replace a $10 or $12/hour income, especially when your income is capped to the number of hours your fickle boss wants to give you that week, and that $10 an hour is pre-tax, pre-unemployment insurance, pre-FICA, etc.
Its the most obvious reason. Close the dining room and you don’t have to clean it, nor do you have to clean the bathrooms every hour. It’s the same reason why a place will say “Dining Room Open until 10pm” but they’ll shut the dining room down at 930pm, it gives them less places to clean when they close down the restaurant.
I don’t drive these days, so these are my observations of the fast food restaurants I find myself in or around these days, usually when I’m running errands about town and need quick food near a bus stop;
Wendy’s - Long line in the drive-thru, lobby is closed.
Del Taco - Short line in the drive-thru, no wait inside.
Taco Bell - Ditto.
McDonald’s - EXTREMELY long line in the drive-thru, no wait inside.
Jack in the Box - Short-ish drive-thru line, lobby open for take-out only, no wait inside.
KFC - Short drive-thru line, not sure if lobby is open or not
Starbucks - EXTREMELY long drive-thru line, lobby is closed
Sonic: Very long drive-thru line, long wait at the drive-up/walk-up order box, best bet is to order on the app 15 minutes before you get there
I was about to boast that I went to a Taco Bell for lunch today, at noon, two blocks from the high school, and there was nobody in front of me at the drive-thru.
Then I remembered schools are out all week this week for Thanksgiving break. 