NEW YORK — In March 2020, many U.S. restaurants had to shut their doors during the early days of the COVID pandemic in accordance with local restrictions. Now, over three years later, the restaurant industry is back. But the pandemic ushered in some changes that are here to stay.
That decision has led to rising sales, she said. Mŏkbar has also continued to sell meals that customers can reheat at home, and delivers meal kits and kimchi nationally. "I revisited the whole model of the business," said Choi. Local favorites, like New York City's Levain bakery and Carbone, a small chain of high-end Italian restaurants, started selling packaged versions of their signature products online and in stores soon after Covid hit, and are still doing so.
Other fast food chains, like Taco Bell, are experimenting with drive-thrus that have more lanes and large kitchens, and no dining rooms at all.When COVID forced many restaurants to close their doors in 2020, many quickly set up delivery services. Over the past few years, customers developed a taste for the option.
Some restaurants, he said, will turn off access to delivery on the weekends or during busy times, when they have plenty of sales in dining rooms. Early in the pandemic, many restaurant workers got laid off. Others, fearing for their own or their loved ones' health — or simply burnt out by stressful conditions — looked for other jobs and stuck with them."The size of the restaurant workforce remains below pre-pandemic levels," the National Restaurant Association said in August, following the July jobs report. "As of July 2023, eating and drinking places were 64,000 jobs — or 0.