There has been widespread coverage of how there is a shortage of employees in the hospitality sector. Like many things these days it has turned into a political debate, and I hope we'll leave that out of this thread. What I'm curious about is whether anyone has noticed a decline in the speed and quality of service in recent months. One Sonic I shop a lot has randomly closed the drive in spaces a few times recently. I've started to do dine-in shops since I got vaccinated and there's been plenty of small snafus that I've had to report on. As a customer, I'll be nothing but patient and polite when I eat out in the coming months, but as a shopper it looks like I'll be having a lot to write about.

Errors can happen when people aren't working under "normal" conditions, or with non-standard procedures. This past year has been anything but normal or standard for employees across the economy. It's still ongoing. Restaurants have been dealing with new gov regulations made on an ad hoc basis, so I'm not surprised there are lots of snafus.

Many, many businesses, especially restaurants, have told me they can't find anyone to work, and they blame (rightly) the government handouts and additional unemployment. Many restaurants are closing early, because they can't get enough help. It took 1 1/2 hours to get lunch at a local restaurant last week, because they were short staffed. Tons of places have signs all over the stores (restaurants, convenience stores) begging for workers. This definitely affects service times.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2021 03:53PM by mjt9598.

People who are getting unemployment are "riding it out" because they get more to do nothing than they get to work. That's a fact.

@SoCalMama wrote:

People who are getting unemployment are "riding it out" because they get more to do nothing than they get to work. That's a fact.

No, that would be called a generalization.

(Ducks for cover.)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2021 02:14AM by mystery2me.

@mystery2me wrote:

@SoCalMama wrote:

People who are getting unemployment are "riding it out" because they get more to do nothing than they get to work. That's a fact.

No, that would be called a generalization.

(Ducks for cover.)

Smarty pants
Just wanted to be sure that the people did not consider it an opinion.

Last time I checked, service workers were not getting $1000 a week (unless they were getting it from unemployment).

Well, um, market forces such as supply and demand of the workforce weren't "LEFT" alone. They were tinkered with by those who believe they have the power to make questionably better policy decisions. They certainly aren't the "RIGHT" policies. So now market forces will slowly make correcting changes. Moral of the story is that the marketplace forces prevail. Some people didn't grasp the principles of ECON-101. (See what I did there?)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2021 10:52AM by maverick1.

After reading the other responses to your remark, I can add a little something here.

This has been reported in several news outlets. Apparently, some workers in the hospitality industry would rather receive unemployment and additional covid benefits than return to what they call bad working conditions and insufficient pay.

@SoCalMama wrote:

People who are getting unemployment are "riding it out" because they get more to do nothing than they get to work. That's a fact.

It is my opinion that, generally. people who are receiving considerable money not to work, will not work. I have witnessed this situation on several occasions over my 57 adult years. For the able bodied , I am a proponent of the adage stating "No workee, no eatee."

So much for my plea that this thread stick to the impact on shopping reports and not devolve into a policy debate...

OP mentioned Sonic, a fast food restaurant which fits under the general umbrella of hospitality and workers there. It is not unreasonable that workers who are covered under state and additional covid benefits might have had a glimpse of possibility and something different. 'What would it be like to earn this larger amount of money? I can't get this much at my old job but I might get more at a different job.' Mind you, I do not know how many of them are seeking other jobs, starting or still attending school, or otherwise preparing for a different and higher-paying work situation. All these and other factors which we might not see can feed into mystery shopping experiences and reports. We get what we get when we get to our shops. We do not always know why things go well or otherwise. The conversation did not go awry.

Yup, and it's not just the hospitality sector. This is why we can't get enough help at the place I work at either.

@SoCalMama wrote:

People who are getting unemployment are "riding it out" because they get more to do nothing than they get to work. That's a fact.

Not to be the naysayer here, but I've been in the food service business for over thirty years. I likely have about 400 "friends" on social media from this time. Guess how many aren't working? None. Quite a few though decided to go do something else while this were closed down and are happier where they now are. This created openings at top places and so the entire chain moves up. Why work at sonic when you can work at Applebee's. Why work there when you can work at outback. Why do that when you can work at Ruth Chris. So yes, places that pay $10/hr are finding themselves with the lack of employees. Are you taking a shop that takes an hour and pays $10? Why do you think these people will work for that either?

Sticking to topic...I did a Sonic the other day and finally had to report that no one ever answered the speaker (after trying twice per the guidelines). So I didn't get a meal and just a bit of pay. While I overheard a carhop telling several different customers that they were short-staffed. You can see now hiring signs everywhere. It would stand to reason employers will have to be less picky about who they hire, so service may suffer as a result. This will, in turn, lengthen the comments in our reports that require an explanation for every no answer.

A neighbor of mine told me that their granddaughter works at Jack in Box and she is working 14 hour shifts, and are asking customers to be patient with them. All the fast food places in my area have signs hiring starting at $15 hour now.

What I've noticed is this: some of the places I know of that are crying for help are the taverns and bars. Oddly enough, many of these same taverns and bars decided to stay open during government requested shutdowns.
I remember when the pandemic was raging, there was encouragement to order takeout from these establishments. When I did and went to pick up my order at one of these places, I noticed the place had a lot of people sitting at bars without the requested "social distancing" masks, etc. Employees were doing the same - not being pandemic cautious. It made me sad and anxious. I thought to myself, why am I putting my health at risk when this place doesn't even care about its customers or employees.
A few weeks later my partner told me that the place had been closed by the health department for violations as well as many of the employees were ill with Covid-19. Apparently, those employees who recovered decided not to come back there. My partner and I decided to take our business elsewhere. Why? If the place could not even follow simple health instructions, what else are they violating!

Gas stations/quik marts dirty outsides.

If you can’t pay your employees a living wage, then you don’t deserve to own a business. Period, full stop. And a living wage isn’t $2.13/hour plus tips, or $10/hour for 32 hours a week with zero benefits.

BTW: there’s a national boycott of McDonald’s tomorrow, May 19. Thought I’d throw that in there, in case you’d forgotten.

Spatulas up, my friends; looks like we are all going to be flipping our own burgers for a while.

Wow.

Done here. This forum is too creepy for me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2021 03:56PM by SoCalMama.

@SoCalMama wrote:

CA has always paid servers minimum wage plus tips. They do have a sub-minimum wage for farm work I believe.
On January 1, 2021, California's statewide minimum wage will increase to $14 per hour for employers with 26 or more employees, and $13 per hour for employers with 25 or fewer employees.

40 hour week @$14/hour is $560/week. Pandemic unemployment added $600 a week plus regular unemployment benefits. So, why would those people go back to work? Some made upwards of $1000 a week not to work.

How about if I promise to never eat at Mc D's ever again? It won't be hard.

I'm laughing here; 40 hours? Really? because you obviously have no idea how, when an employees' scheduled hours approach 36 or 37 hours, they are pulled off the line and sent home - because working 40 hours is a no-no; at that point the employer has to kick in medical insurance, and they'd much rather that they rely on Medicaid (if their state allows it.)

"Those people," as you call them, live in perpetual uncertainty of having their hours cut. They are timed, tracked, mystery shopped, suffer wage theft (often asked to clock out while still working) - it's a shitty job as it's set up now, in 2021, and personally I am more than a little bit happy that the owners - who make up to two million dollars per fast food location - are getting it stuck to them now.

The problem isn't that the pandemic unemployment benefits are too lavish. The problem is that we turned a blind eye while an entire industry was built on artificially cheap labor and zero benefits. I don't eat fast food, don't do their shops, and don't want to help the owners who are OK with treating their employees this way.

To answer the OP's question, my experience is that where service was bad before the pandemic, it is still bad. Where service was good, it is still good.

There is a convenience store chain in my area that starts its employees at $12 an hour, while others pay considerably less. (The minimum wage here is $7.25.) That store has no shortage of employees, service is great, there are no signs begging for workers or complaining of lack of staff. The main convenience chain pays much less, and service continues to be bad just like it became after a bigger company bought them out a few years ago and slashed staffing to make more money for the investors who paid for the buyout.

It's true, service/hospitality employees are generally held to less than 32 hours a week. Here, that's the cutoff for the employer being required to pay employee benefits. Even at $15 an hour, 32 hours doesn't provide a living wage.

And yes, I've been shopping places recently with closed drive-ins because they didn't have staff, slow service, "we are hiring" signs. And I've put applications in at every one of them. Even though I emphasize that I'm a reliable, steady worker with a great work ethic, I haven't gotten one call back. I'm 75. Who is gonna hire me?

OTOH, I've known more than one waitress who took home over $250 cash tips after a 6 hour shift; they report taxes only on the tips that are put on credit cards. They basically just lie and say they received no cash tips. After their 6 hour breakfast/lunch shift, they go to their SECOND job for a dinner shift, and make another $250 or so. I'm not generalizing, and speaking from personal experience/observation.

It's still a lousy job, with no real future, no benefits.

Hospitality/service workers are NOT fungible goods -- but that's EXACTLY how they are treated.

There's a KFC in my area that is looking for a restaurant general manager, assistant manager, shift supervisor, and multiple team members.

The world doesn’t need KFCs, McDonald’s, Applebee’s- if the cost is an overburdened Medicaid system, SNAP, WIC and other “safety nets” designed to keep our low-income workers from starvation, illness and homelessness.

Let them close. Permanently. So many of those fast-food and box retail chains are owned by overseas billionaire investment groups, anyway. They’re cynically betting on the American safety net to care for the workers that they treat as disposable assets.

Since MSing is not back to 'normal', I signed up to do a few serving gigs for weddings/Mother's Day banquets the last few weeks. Yesterday I was called to do a wedding this weekend and was informed I was now the supervisor. I have a lifetime record of having been a server twice. That's not two periods - that's two DAYS. So yes, I would say they're desperate. And also that mystery shopping is great training for being a good server.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2021 03:37PM by pambam57.

Mystery shopping is great training for all career paths.

I wish that WE would learn from hotel and restaurant employees, and start refusing to take the chicken-feed shops offered by MSPs.

Let's let those stupid "$2 Bonus for an Easy Shop!" spammy emails fall into the Trash folder with no regrets, ignore the whiny schedulers who cajole and/or vaguely threaten you to take $8 gas stations, and watch the MSPs who underbid contracts fold. They are STRUGGLING right now to fill those single-digit shops - DON'T DO THEM.

Let those awful companies fold - I'm serious here - and let the contracts go to professional organizations who pay decent fees on time like clockwork - which shows respect for their shopper base. If you can't afford to pay your shoppers what they're worth, on time, you're a hobbyist, not a businessperson.

We have SO much power and control at this moment. If we can take a big hint from the very people that we evaluate - the fast food, hospitality, retail workers of America - and refuse to accept anything below what we are worth - we can absolutely, definitely, raise our fees.

((walking off, singing the theme from "Les Miserables.")

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2021 04:06PM by ColoKate63.

Where I live in California (Los Angeles) UI added $300 a week. $600 is long gone. Many lower end workers do not get a full schedule, especially now. Restaurants are not open full time, they can only seat 50% of tables right now and there is still the issue of unknown customers without masks. I just ran a calculator for a $400 per week job assuming working all 52 weeks and/or getting vacation and sick leave pay. Many places employ lower end people at less than 40 hours to avoid paying certain benefits. . That scenario would get you UI of $200 a week, so with the extra $300 right now you would get $500 a week. One of my friends recently quit his job as manager at a popular bar. He was just tired of work this week, no work that week, short shifts due to early closing and having to deal with customers not adhering to covid rules and often being unruly. He is looking for something else. There is a combination of factors including the amt of pay when not working. And to top it off on UI you are allowed the first $25 per week of earnings. After that for the next $75 you get nothing as it is 100% deducted from your UI benefit. Above that you get a partial benefit. That is a lot of working and dealing with problem people for not much of a change in income or even a decrease in income.
As for service, I recently dined out at an upscale restaurant. My cole slaw came as a bunch of sliced raw cabbage next to the ribs which were good but dry. There was a side plate with ketchup, bbq sauce and a little cup of white sauce. I sent it back and the cole slaw got mixed with that side sauce which turned out to be blue cheese dressing...Blue cheese cole slaw was really good by the way even tho it was the wrong sauce. I had the bruschetta appetizer which featured pesto. The bread underneath seemed to have been toasted yesterday as it was hard as a rock. There was no hint of pesto. Sent that back too the return plate had decent bread and a coating of pesto that made the dish so much better. The servers were wonderful. But the kitchen???



40 hour week @$14/hour is $560/week. Pandemic unemployment added $600 a week plus regular unemployment benefits. So, why would those people go back to work? Some made upwards of $1000 a week not to work.

How about if I promise to never eat at Mc D's ever again? It won't be hard.[/quote]

@pambam57 wrote:

Yesterday I was called to do a wedding this weekend and was informed I was now the supervisor. I have a lifetime record of having been a server twice. That's not two periods - that's two DAYS. So yes, I would say they're desperate. And also that mystery shopping is great training for being a good server.

I hope the promotion came with a supervisor's wage/salary.

@ColoKate63 wrote:

"Those people," as you call them, live in perpetual uncertainty of having their hours cut. They are timed, tracked, mystery shopped, suffer wage theft (often asked to clock out while still working) - it's a shitty job as it's set up now, in 2021, and personally I am more than a little bit happy that the owners - who make up to two million dollars per fast food location - are getting it stuck to them now.

Also, some people have not returned to work because they died of covid. Others got sick with the disease and are now disabled by long-covid. If they did not suffer personally, they are dealing with the affairs of family members who died or became disabled. And of those who escaped all that, they may be living in a school district where the kids do not have in-person learning yet. $7.50 per hour won't pay for childcare expenses. They have to stay home to care for the children. Lots of reasons some people can't go back to low paid jobs, no matter how much they want to do so.