EASTHAMPTON — When Gov. Charlie Baker announced a ban on large gatherings and the closure of local businesses on March 15, 2020, the region was confronted with the “new normal” of the COVID-19 era.
For dine-in restaurants, that meant laying off workers, retooling their operations to provide takeout options, shorter hours and the hopes that government financial aid would arrive. Other businesses faced the same. And it is now, with Baker set to lift all COVID-19 restrictions on May 29, that many in the hospitality industry are beginning to wonder whether the “old normal” will ever fully return.
“It’s like a switch has gone from off to on,” said Casey Douglass, the owner of the Main Street restaurant Galaxy. “When you turn it back on, you don’t realize which fuses have blown.”
At some businesses, owners are finding that customers are returning but employees are harder to bring back. Some restaurants have held onto staff during the pandemic, but are now seeing customers change their habits — avoiding indoor, for example, dining in lieu of expanded outdoor patios. And others are trying to figure out how to keep takeout operations running alongside their previous offerings.
For Douglass, takeout customers “paid the bills all winter” for his restaurant, normally a dine-in establishment.
“We have to keep that going,” he said. “They bailed us out. They were our steady customers.”
However, Douglass has had to cut back Galaxy’s hours of operation because he’s struggling to find employees to work in the kitchen.
It’s a trend that some other businesses are also finding as they begin to try to hire back staff. Jeffrey Hoess-Brooks, the manager of Hotel Northampton and Fairfield Inn & Suites, said Hotel Northampton’s restaurant is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays now because the business can’t find staff for its kitchen or server positions.
“Staffing is very difficult — finding applications for all positions: housekeepers, servers, clerks, front desk, maintenance,” he said. “We have some positions open in every department, and applications are few and far in between.”
Hoess-Brooks attributed the labor shortage to many factors, but said he felt more generous unemployment benefits during the pandemic have some workers avoiding a return to service-industry jobs. When asked if he has tried raising wages to attract more applications, he said the hotel pays above the minimum wage.
“I don’t think applicants are even applying to hear what the wages are,” he said. “It’s not like I’m advertising out there what the wages are.”
The service industry across the country is seeing similar realities. At 10.3% in April, the unemployment rate in food-and-drink service businesses was significantly higher than the 6.1% unemployment rate nationally.
A University of California San Francisco study showed that between March and October of 2020, food and agriculture workers suffered one of the largest increases in mortality relative to pre-pandemic levels. Mortality increased 28% for workers in those fields, which are already low-paying and difficult jobs. Cooks in particular had the highest discrepancy between pre-COVID mortality rates and pandemic-era rates.
“I think it’s really important to not point the finger at the worker,” said Andrea Schmid, a co-director of the Pioneer Valley Workers Center. “It’s important to put emphasis on what this says about what low-wage workers are facing in this economy”
Schmid said some Workers Center members who work in the food industry have done better than before because of improved government aid during the pandemic. She said that says more about how underpaid many vital workers are, adding that undocumented workers have enjoyed no unemployment benefits during the pandemic. Better wages, benefits and working standards are needed in food service work, she said.
“Obviously, it’s really important that small businesses that make our communities exciting and provide jobs for folks are able to stay open, and we’ve seen a lot of them close in the face of the pandemic,” Schmid said. “What we need to strive for … is to make sure they’re actually jobs that are sustainable and give people the ability to survive.”
For other local restaurants, labor shortages have not been an issue. At the Silver Spoon in Easthampton on Friday afternoon, owner Donna Geis said the diner has had employees who stayed on during the entire pandemic, when to-go orders and money from the federal Paycheck Protection Program kept them afloat.
Now, with Easthampton allowing the restaurant and others to expand their outdoor seating, business is booming, Geis said. Her husband, Peter, added that the previous week the Silver Spoon even decided to close its indoor seating.
“Everybody wanted to sit outside,” he said, adding that the restaurant has come out of the pandemic in a strong financial position. “I don’t know what the fall or winter will be like.”
Not far away on Union Street, the restaurant Glory of India continues to do business at a brisk pace. But a table and chair keep customers in the entrance of the restaurant.
Anup Sangar, the owner, was cooking in the kitchen, writing down takeout orders and handing customers bags of fresh food by himself on Friday. He said he and his family are continuing to do the work of running the restaurant, and that until the pandemic is really over they’ll stick to their takeout business.
“I want to take care of myself and my customers,” he said. “I’m waiting until everybody is OK.”
That decision was fine with Bruce Hart, who was picking up food from Glory of India on Friday. He said he was recently shocked to see many people eating indoors at a different Valley restaurant.
“We’re not ready for that,” he said. For the moment, Hart said he’s sticking with takeout from Glory of India. “I’ve been coming here for ages.”
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.