Restaurants Suffering during COVID-19

To say that the restaurant industry is suffering due to COVID-19 is a blinding flash of the obvious. Just look around.

From 2019 to 2020, COVID-19 impacted the restaurant industry catastrophically, with sales plummeting 19.2%. According to the National Restaurant Association’s State of the Industry Report, 2021 sales are projected to climb only 10.2% – not nearly enough to recover from the steep hole caused by the pandemic.

This will be the “year of transition and rebuilding,” in the words of Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the research and knowledge group with the National Restaurant Association, and it will take time before the industry gets back to pre-pandemic levels.

• The restaurant industry ended 2020 with total sales that were $240 billion below the Association’s pre-pandemic forecast for the year

• As of Dec. 1, 2020, more than 110,000 eating and drinking places were closed for business temporarily, or for good

• The eating and drinking place sector finished 2020 nearly 2.5 million jobs below its pre-coronavirus level. At the peak of initial closures, the association estimates up to 8 million employees were laid off or furloughed

The National Restaurant Association found that 35% of off-premises customers ages 21+ are more likely to choose a restaurant if it offers the option of including alcoholic beverages with the to-go order.

For more about the restaurant industry, visit: https://www.restaurant.org/research/reports/state-of-restaurant-industry.

Foodservice operators in New Jersey can also find help by contacting the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers (NJSBDC) https://njsbdc.com/

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