Local fast-food restaurants adapt to coronavirus, look forward to reopening indoor dining

When will your favorite fast-food restaurants reopen indoor dining?

Brian House, owner and operator of Chick-fil-A at 3333 Gordonville Road in Cape Girardeau said April 2021. Shannon Davis, owner and operator of local McDonald's restaurants said, "We will reopen when things settle down. I just don't know when that's going to be." And Dan Drury, president of Midamerica Hotels/Drury Restaurants, said finding employees is their biggest hurdle to reopening.

All three of the businesses shut down dining rooms sometime in March, when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Fortunately for fast-food restaurants, they have drive-through windows, so they pivoted to accommodate customers that way, or through delivery, while keeping employees safe.

"I've got a duty to my customers and my staff to make sure they're safe," Davis said. "They're wearing masks and gloves and the drive-throughs have plastic shields on them. Then, if you open up to lobbies ... there's just a lot more potential contacts."

Drury shared they've had angry guests spray Lysol in some of the faces of the drive-through workers over the past several months.

"Even not even reopening, I've got to worry about the team," he said.

According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with restaurant and food service sales losses surpassing $185 billion between March and August.

House, Davis and Drury said the delivery options offered and curbside service have helped tremendously; a much larger percentage of their customers are getting their meals delivered than ever before.

"It's a learning curve," House said. "But you just adapt to what the new norm is. The curbside option has helped us tremendously. So, we look at other opportunities to make sure that our team stays safe, and our guests are safe."

Davis said McDonald's is focusing on "rocking the drive-through." And rocking it they are, shaving over a minute cars service times, compared to last year. He said they're working on becoming faster and more efficient in an effort to serve as many people as last year, just without the lobby.

Each of the restaurants have upped their sanitary measures, doubling hand-washing intervals, spraying disinfectant to protect their workers, supplying masks and gloves even before it was mandatory, to keep everyone safe. And, they all have strict corporate policies they must follow upon reopening.

In addition to the stresses of operating during these uncertain times, both Drury and House stressed that finding employees has been a challenge during the pandemic.

"There are jobs out there. For young people who want to work or for some people who just want to supplement their income, we have jobs," Drury said.

Drury added, "As a manager of any kind of a retail or hospitality business right now, we are facing extremely tough times."

The restaurant industry will sustain more than $240 billion in losses by the end of 2020, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Even though the owners know customers are anxious to dine-in, the process cannot be rushed.

"We're not going to be the first to open our lobbies up, but we're not going be the last," Davis said. "We have a duty to our customers and our employees to do it right, and you only have one shot to do it right."