Written by Benjamin Peters
Edited by Gabriel Agüero
The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a substantial recession, but now, a year later, many businesses have rebounded and gone back to work. However, one popular but still struggling facet of the economy is the restaurant industry. They have been commonly-cited as a staple of normalcy - people would say that they want to be able to go out to eat, back when the pandemic began. Unfortunately, though, as a location where people are in proximity and usually not able to wear masks, restaurants are generally considered to be less safe than other businesses that have been more successful in their reopening efforts.
In Connecticut, the recovery efforts of restaurants have differed depending on their locations, but in general they have seen success in reopening their doors to the public. On the other hand, the general restaurant workers’ crisis earlier this year has hampered these efforts, as most restaurants are understaffed due to workers wanting higher pay or better conditions. This has actually proven to be one of the greatest problems with the pandemic recovery - quite a few locations have been unable to reopen fully or even partially due to staff shortages, and it has led to certain creative solutions - one restaurant is using a team of robotic workers to make up for the loss in human staff. This shortage is primarily due to the fact that in the past, restaurant pay has not nearly matched the work. Despite recent pay raises this negative connotation has stuck.
Overall, though, in the higher-income portions of the state, restaurant recovery has been successful thanks to the investments and support of patrons in the area. In Greenwich, for example, much of the local economy actually benefited from the pandemic, as New Yorkers fled the city to the suburbs, and some new restaurants have been able to open. Meanwhile, in the country as a whole, 200,000 small businesses closed down. In general, the pandemic recovery has been what is known as a ‘K-shaped recovery’, in which the top of the wealth scale benefits while the bottom does not.
If you want to go out to eat at a local restaurant, be mindful of longer wait times and the safety restrictions that are still in place. Odds are it will be slightly more expensive as well. However, any restaurant owner will be happy to have customers after a year or more without being able to operate, and you will be supporting the local economy in an important way.
Works Cited
McGirl, Siobhan. “As Staffing Shortages Persist, CT Restaurants Look for Solutions”. NBC Connecticut, NBC News. 21 September 2021. https://www.nbcconnecticut. /local/as-staffing-shortages-persist-ct-restaurants-look-for-solutions/2587512/
Phillips, Erica E. “In Greenwich, recovery from the pandemic recession came quickly”. CT Mirror, CT Mirror. 3 October 2021. https://ctmirror.org/2021/10/03/in-greenwich-rec overy-from-the-pandemic-recession-came-quickly/