新冠疫情导致的经济衰退,没有一个行业能够幸免,但到目前为止受到冲击最严重的当属餐饮业。3月有60%的失业者来自食品和饮料行业,“经济海啸”的第一波浪潮已经导致1,680万美国人申请失业补助金。就业受到的影响预示着整体经济面临着巨大的冲击。整个餐饮业,包括进入《财富》美国500强的5家大型连锁餐厅,对美国GDP的贡献率约为4%,达到近1万亿美元。
为了解新冠疫情对餐饮业的影响,以及餐饮企业如何收拾残局,重整旗鼓,《财富》杂志采访了三位餐厅负责人。这三家餐厅分别是不同经营模式的佼佼者。
布莱恩·尼科洛
Chipotle董事长兼CEO
全国连锁餐厅
2,600家门店
年收入56亿美元
雇员85,000人
布莱恩·尼科洛称,新冠疫情对Chipotle及其员工的影响“令我心碎”。对于Chipotle的新任CEO而言,疫情危机发生的时机尤其令人沮丧。因为在尼科洛的领导下,该连锁餐厅通过重新设计店面和推出新菜单项目等,刚刚解决了早期的食品安全问题,去年公司营收增加了15%。
他说:“公司的所有业务按下了暂停键。”与其他同行一样,连锁餐厅Chipotle现在的工作重点是适应新的现实状况:消费者需求骤降,员工日益担心健康和安全问题,更不必说长期的就业保障。该品牌将门店的营业时间缩短了10%,3%的门店停业,并要求这些门店的员工无薪休假。停业的门店主要位于关闭的商场或购物中心。其他继续上班的小时工,在5月中旬之前可加薪10%;Chipotle员工通常有三天病假,如今在危机期间工作的员工根据工作安排可获得最长两周带薪病假。
尼科洛认为,有一些长期变化可能对公司是有好处的。他说,现在,更多顾客在晚餐时,会选在通常主打午餐的连锁餐厅。去年,该餐厅的数字订单增加了90%,占总销售额的18%。他预测,网上订餐会成为消费者的固定习惯(虽然订餐所产生的收入流很大程度上取决于Uber Eats等合作伙伴的持续成功)。尼科洛还预测,在其他公司快速裁员的时候,因为这些消息变得焦虑不安的餐饮业员工可能开始密切关注雇主的财务健康状况(从2015年遭遇大肠杆菌疫情之后,Chipotle一直将维持健康的资产负债表作为首要任务):“员工会更关注公司的状况:‘公司目前的财务健康状况如何?当危机来临的时候,公司的现金状况是否良好?’”
汤姆·克里奇诺
Crafted Hospitality所有人
中等规模餐饮集团
5家Crafted Hospitality门店
4家’wichcraft门店
雇员475人
汤姆·克里奇诺对他的员工、厨师长的人选和国家议员都有很高的标准。汤姆·克里奇诺是Crafted Hospitality和’Wichcraft餐厅的老板,也是新成立的独立餐厅联盟(Independent Restaurant Coalition,IRC)的创立者之一。如今他已经成为餐饮业1,100万从业者的代言人,包括服务员、厨师、厨房工作人员和餐厅领位员等,正在呼吁政府提供支持。他说:“如果没有政府的帮助,餐饮业将彻底毁灭。”克里奇诺正在游说国会修订《冠状病毒援助、救济和经济安全法案》(CARES Act),将餐厅经营的特殊情况考虑在内。例如,该法案规定,雇主收到贷款后能够维持就业量至少8周,即可免于偿还贷款;而许多餐厅现在急需资金,但可能需要很久才能恢复正常营业。克里奇诺在3月15日宣布全部餐厅停业,使近500名员工只能申请失业补助金,而不是像其他高级餐厅同行一样选择外卖模式。他认为,继续经营的风险超过了收益。他说:“如果我为了每晚一两千美元的收入,却让某个员工落到使用呼吸机的地步,我绝对无法原谅自己。”
独立餐厅联盟呼吁政府提供新税收优惠和其他长期支持,但对于克里奇诺来说,眼下的首要任务是让餐饮业生存下去,继续发挥社区基石的作用。他说:“如果没有餐厅,我们的社区将不再是社区。建筑的底商空空荡荡,让人感觉整个城市都毫无生机。”
蔡慕林(音译)
Kopitiam共同所有人
独立餐厅
1家门店
雇员28人
蔡慕林的马来西亚咖啡厅和餐厅位于曼哈顿的唐人街。当地在1月就开始感受到新冠疫情的影响。顾客担心在中国爆发的新型冠状病毒,因此不再到唐人街用餐,尽管没有任何证据证明当地存在病毒。
三个月后,Kopitiam仍在营业,但其销售额不足正常情况下的5%。Kopitiam来自咖啡馆一词的闽南语。这家餐厅深深扎根于当地社区,自2015年开业以来备受食客们喜爱。餐厅员工有当地的高中生,也有老年居民。蔡慕林和合作伙伴、大厨庞乔(音译)正在尽最大努力继续服务社区。3月17日,在纽约市命令餐厅全部停业几天后,他们被迫要求员工无薪休假,但仍坚持发放薪水至4月1日。他们仍在努力通过外卖订单以及礼品卡和特价商品等获得一些收入,比如在家制作该餐厅著名的咖椰酱吐司所使用的工具等。但挑战依旧存在。蔡慕林表示,供应商从每天送货变成了每周送三次货。Kopitiam餐厅在一个月内就用光了过去两年的全部储蓄。
关于未来,蔡慕林对唐人街的同行表示担忧。她的餐厅备受美食评论家的好评,并且精通数字业务,如果她的餐厅都无法渡过难关,其他餐厅会有怎样的命运?
但对于Kopitiam,她还没有长远的考虑。她说道:“我学会了麻痹自己。如果我静静地坐着,就会有各种情绪涌入心头。之前我们一直希望能够扩大规模,但如今我们的所有努力都化为了泡影。如果这种事情再次发生,我们怎么保证自己能平安无事呢?” (财富中文网)
本文另一版本登载于《财富》杂志2020年5月刊,标题为《疫情中的餐饮业》。
译者:Biz
新冠疫情导致的经济衰退,没有一个行业能够幸免,但到目前为止受到冲击最严重的当属餐饮业。3月有60%的失业者来自食品和饮料行业,“经济海啸”的第一波浪潮已经导致1,680万美国人申请失业补助金。就业受到的影响预示着整体经济面临着巨大的冲击。整个餐饮业,包括进入《财富》美国500强的5家大型连锁餐厅,对美国GDP的贡献率约为4%,达到近1万亿美元。
为了解新冠疫情对餐饮业的影响,以及餐饮企业如何收拾残局,重整旗鼓,《财富》杂志采访了三位餐厅负责人。这三家餐厅分别是不同经营模式的佼佼者。
布莱恩·尼科洛
Chipotle董事长兼CEO
全国连锁餐厅
2,600家门店
年收入56亿美元
雇员85,000人
布莱恩·尼科洛称,新冠疫情对Chipotle及其员工的影响“令我心碎”。对于Chipotle的新任CEO而言,疫情危机发生的时机尤其令人沮丧。因为在尼科洛的领导下,该连锁餐厅通过重新设计店面和推出新菜单项目等,刚刚解决了早期的食品安全问题,去年公司营收增加了15%。
他说:“公司的所有业务按下了暂停键。”与其他同行一样,连锁餐厅Chipotle现在的工作重点是适应新的现实状况:消费者需求骤降,员工日益担心健康和安全问题,更不必说长期的就业保障。该品牌将门店的营业时间缩短了10%,3%的门店停业,并要求这些门店的员工无薪休假。停业的门店主要位于关闭的商场或购物中心。其他继续上班的小时工,在5月中旬之前可加薪10%;Chipotle员工通常有三天病假,如今在危机期间工作的员工根据工作安排可获得最长两周带薪病假。
尼科洛认为,有一些长期变化可能对公司是有好处的。他说,现在,更多顾客在晚餐时,会选在通常主打午餐的连锁餐厅。去年,该餐厅的数字订单增加了90%,占总销售额的18%。他预测,网上订餐会成为消费者的固定习惯(虽然订餐所产生的收入流很大程度上取决于Uber Eats等合作伙伴的持续成功)。尼科洛还预测,在其他公司快速裁员的时候,因为这些消息变得焦虑不安的餐饮业员工可能开始密切关注雇主的财务健康状况(从2015年遭遇大肠杆菌疫情之后,Chipotle一直将维持健康的资产负债表作为首要任务):“员工会更关注公司的状况:‘公司目前的财务健康状况如何?当危机来临的时候,公司的现金状况是否良好?’”
汤姆·克里奇诺
Crafted Hospitality所有人
中等规模餐饮集团
5家Crafted Hospitality门店
4家’wichcraft门店
雇员475人
汤姆·克里奇诺对他的员工、厨师长的人选和国家议员都有很高的标准。汤姆·克里奇诺是Crafted Hospitality和’Wichcraft餐厅的老板,也是新成立的独立餐厅联盟(Independent Restaurant Coalition,IRC)的创立者之一。如今他已经成为餐饮业1,100万从业者的代言人,包括服务员、厨师、厨房工作人员和餐厅领位员等,正在呼吁政府提供支持。他说:“如果没有政府的帮助,餐饮业将彻底毁灭。”克里奇诺正在游说国会修订《冠状病毒援助、救济和经济安全法案》(CARES Act),将餐厅经营的特殊情况考虑在内。例如,该法案规定,雇主收到贷款后能够维持就业量至少8周,即可免于偿还贷款;而许多餐厅现在急需资金,但可能需要很久才能恢复正常营业。克里奇诺在3月15日宣布全部餐厅停业,使近500名员工只能申请失业补助金,而不是像其他高级餐厅同行一样选择外卖模式。他认为,继续经营的风险超过了收益。他说:“如果我为了每晚一两千美元的收入,却让某个员工落到使用呼吸机的地步,我绝对无法原谅自己。”
独立餐厅联盟呼吁政府提供新税收优惠和其他长期支持,但对于克里奇诺来说,眼下的首要任务是让餐饮业生存下去,继续发挥社区基石的作用。他说:“如果没有餐厅,我们的社区将不再是社区。建筑的底商空空荡荡,让人感觉整个城市都毫无生机。”
蔡慕林(音译)
Kopitiam共同所有人
独立餐厅
1家门店
雇员28人
蔡慕林的马来西亚咖啡厅和餐厅位于曼哈顿的唐人街。当地在1月就开始感受到新冠疫情的影响。顾客担心在中国爆发的新型冠状病毒,因此不再到唐人街用餐,尽管没有任何证据证明当地存在病毒。
三个月后,Kopitiam仍在营业,但其销售额不足正常情况下的5%。Kopitiam来自咖啡馆一词的闽南语。这家餐厅深深扎根于当地社区,自2015年开业以来备受食客们喜爱。餐厅员工有当地的高中生,也有老年居民。蔡慕林和合作伙伴、大厨庞乔(音译)正在尽最大努力继续服务社区。3月17日,在纽约市命令餐厅全部停业几天后,他们被迫要求员工无薪休假,但仍坚持发放薪水至4月1日。他们仍在努力通过外卖订单以及礼品卡和特价商品等获得一些收入,比如在家制作该餐厅著名的咖椰酱吐司所使用的工具等。但挑战依旧存在。蔡慕林表示,供应商从每天送货变成了每周送三次货。Kopitiam餐厅在一个月内就用光了过去两年的全部储蓄。
关于未来,蔡慕林对唐人街的同行表示担忧。她的餐厅备受美食评论家的好评,并且精通数字业务,如果她的餐厅都无法渡过难关,其他餐厅会有怎样的命运?
但对于Kopitiam,她还没有长远的考虑。她说道:“我学会了麻痹自己。如果我静静地坐着,就会有各种情绪涌入心头。之前我们一直希望能够扩大规模,但如今我们的所有努力都化为了泡影。如果这种事情再次发生,我们怎么保证自己能平安无事呢?” 》。(财富中文网)
本文另一版本登载于《财富》杂志2020年5月刊,标题为《疫情中的餐饮业》。
译者:Biz
The coronavirus recession has left no industry untouched, but the restaurant business is arguably the hardest hit so far. The food and beverage sector accounted for 60% of the jobs lost in March, the first wave of the tsunami that has since prompted 16.8 million Americans to apply for unemployment. The impact on those workers foreshadows a supersize blow to the economy at large. The restaurant industry—which includes five chains large enough to appear in the Fortune 500—¬contributes an estimated 4% of the U.S. GDP, or roughly $1 trillion.
To get a sense of the ways in which the industry has been impacted—and how it might ultimately pick up the pieces, Fortune spoke to three restaurateurs, each leading a very different type of establishment.
****
Brian Niccol
Chairman and CEO, Chipotle
National chain
2,600 locations
$5.6 billion in annual revenue
85,000 employees
The Impact of the virus on Chipotle and its employees “breaks my heart,” says Brian Niccol. The crisis comes at a particularly frustrating time for the new CEO, who was guiding the chain past its earlier food safety issues by redesigning restaurants and rolling out new menu items like carne asada—changes that helped provide a 15% bump in revenue last year.
“We’ve kind of hit the pause button on those things,” he says. Instead, Chipotle, like its chain-restaurant peers, is focused on adapting to the new reality: plunging consumer demand and a workforce increasingly concerned about its health and safety—not to mention longer-term job security. The brand has reduced hours at 10% of its stores and closed 3% of locations—mostly those in shuttered malls or shopping centers—furloughing those employees. The rest of the hourly workforce, still coming in, received a 10% pay bump through mid-May; Chipotle employees typically get three days of sick leave, and now those working during the crisis are eligible for up to two weeks of sick pay, depending on their work schedules.
Some long-term changes to the company may be positive, Niccol says. More diners are now turning to the chain, traditionally a lunch staple, for dinner, he notes. Digital orders—already up 90% last year to 18% of total sales—will, he expects, become a permanent consumer habit (although that revenue stream largely depends on the continued success of partners like Uber Eats). Niccol also predicts that restaurant industry employees, burned by rapid layoffs at other companies, may start paying closer attention to the financial health of their employers (Chipotle has prioritized a healthy balance sheet as it has recovered from its 2015 E. coli outbreak): “Employees are going to have a closer eye on, ‘What is the health of my company? How good of a cash position are they in in the event of a crisis?’”
****
Tom Colicchio
Owner, Crafted Hospitality
Midsize restaurant group
5 Crafted Hospitality locations
4 ’wichcraft locations
475 employees
Tom Colicchio has high standards—for his staff, for Top Chef contestants, and for the nation’s lawmakers. As one of the founders of the newly created Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC), the Crafted Hospitality and ’Wichcraft owner has become a spokesman for the sector’s 11 million or so servers, chefs, kitchen staff, and hosts, and is calling for government support. “Without help, the restaurant industry is going to be decimated,” he says. Colicchio is lobbying for changes to Congress’s CARES Act that account for the particularities of running a restaurant. For instance, the legislation forgives loans for companies that keep employees on the payroll for at least eight weeks after disbursement; many restaurants need the money now but suspect that it will take far longer to return to business as usual. Colicchio opted to close the doors of his establishments on March 15, sending his nearly 500 employees to file for unemployment rather than try to transfer to a takeout model as some of his fine-dining peers have done. The risk outweighed the pros of staying open, he says: “I couldn’t live with myself if, for a couple thousand dollars a night, someone may end up on a respirator.”
The IRC is pushing for new tax rebates and other longer-term support, but for Colicchio, the immediate priority is keeping the industry—and its role as a community touchstone—alive. “Our neighborhoods without restaurants aren’t neighborhoods,” he says. “Our buildings with ground floors empty—that just feels like the city is dead.”
****
Moonlynn Tsai
Co-owner, Kopitiam
Independent restaurant
1 location
28 employees
It was only January when Manhattan’s Chinatown, home to Moonlynn Tsai’s Malaysian coffeehouse and restaurant, first felt the sting of the coronavirus. Diners, concerned about the new disease in China, began avoiding the area—despite an utter lack of evidence that the virus was present in the neighborhood.
Three months later, Kopitiam—named for the Hokkien word for coffeehouse—¬remains open, but it’s making less than 5% of its usual sales. The beloved eatery, first opened in 2015, is deeply entrenched in the community. Its staffers are a mix of local high-schoolers and elderly residents, and Tsai and her business partner, chefKyo Pang, are trying their hardest to continue serving their neighbors. The pair furloughed their staff on March 17, days after New York City ordered restaurants to close, but paid all employees through April 1. They’ve tried to keep some revenue coming in with takeout orders, as well as gift cards and special offers like an at-home kit to build the restaurant’s famous kaya jam toast. But the challenges continue. Tsai said suppliers have gone from delivery every day to three times a week. In just a month, Kopitiam burned through all its savings from the past two years.
Looking ahead, Tsai fears for her fellow Chinatown establishments. If her restaurant—fawned over by food critics and with a savvy digital presence—can’t weather the storm, what will happen to others?
As for Kopitiam, she’s not ready to think beyond the next days. “I’ve learned to numb myself. If I start sitting still, all the emotions are going to come,” Tsai says. “We were hoping by now we could expand, but everything we had for that has been wiped out. If this happens again—how do we make sure we’ll be okay?”
A version of this article appears in the May 2020 issue of Fortune with the headline “86 the restaurant industry?”