The Covid has not sat badly at the US bars. At least if we talk about productivity levels. Even though pandemic He hit with viciousness to the hospitality of half the world (including the Spanish), He sank the billing From the sector and condemned not a few businesses at the close, American premises reached during the health crisis a level of labor productivity by 15% greater than they had before COVID, a notable increase that has not been diluted.
The explanation is very simple: express visits.
The Covid heritage. That the pandemic was devastating for the hospitality and forced to close Many businesses It is clear. However, however, a group of researchers from Chicago and New York universities asked a question that goes a little further: Did Covid-19 influence the productivity of the premises? And if so, in what sense? Is that effect still maintained?
Their conclusions were reflected in A study that has just published the National Bureau of Economic Resarch (NBER) with a quite eloquent title and that gives a clue to which direction its findings point to: ‘The curious increase in productivity in US restaurants’.
A percentage: 15%. The team of economists has not only found that effectively the performance of restaurants seemed to increase during the years of the health crisis. Has even encrypted that increase, as they need in The conclusions Of its report: “We verify that, after being practically constant for almost 30 years, real work productivity in restaurants increased more than 15% during the Covid-19 Pandemia.”
The data is interesting because it does not only reflect a specific and past reality, related to the worst years of the Coronavirus. After sliding that percentage (15%) the researchers clarify that this turn has not yet diluted its effect. “This increase has been maintained even when many conditions have returned to prepondondemic levels.”
And what was the reason? Clarified and calculated the increase in productivity, the following doubt was obvious: what was the reason? What did he answer? To answer all these issues, experts examined about 100,000 restaurants distributed by the US, focusing on aspects such as sales or the number of consumers attended by each employee. They also had access to information about visits thanks to mobile phones. The sample is wide, but presents certain characteristics that should be taken into account.
To start the experts set in a very specific business profile, the Limited service hospitality (LSR), the one in which the interaction between the staff and the client is minimized, as in many premises of Fast food. The study in fact that focused on three subcategories: restaurants in the style of Taco Bell or McDonald´s, buffets and coffee shops such as Starbucks. For the sample to be wide, they covered more than 600 brands.
Why this choice? The study It clarifies that the LSRs represent about 45% of the employment and sales of the sector in the US already throughout the last decades its productivity has evolved in a “very similar” way to the whole of the restoration sector. In addition, limited services offered an extra advantage: economists have complete information on their visits.
Combing (thousands of) data. With all that information about the table, economists began drawing conclusions. And the first were striking. “Microdatos reveal significant growth in productivity, already measured in sales per employee or even in a more basic/physical average of the total number of customers per employee,” he says The study Published by Nber, which also rules out that this rebound can be explained by economies of scale, a greater weight of the sector or changes in demand.
The experts also found that if the employees sold more it was not because they spent more time in their positions. When they were proven that the average weekly hours worked between July 2022 and June 2024 was 25.1 hours, “the same”, they clarify, that from 2006 to 2008. “In fact the current hours per worker are actually a bit below the pre-covid average from 2018 to 2019”.
What is the cause? The rhythm. Or rather, the duration of visits. The researchers appreciated “significant descents in the amount of time” that customers spent in restaurants, with an increase especially pronounced in the group of consumers that remained in the premises 10 or even less minutes. That phenomenon was found during the pandemic years and did not seem to dissipate once the health crisis has been overcome.
“The average permanence time of customers decreased and most of the reduction was due to the increase in the percentage of visits that lasted less than 10 minutes,” says the study. Your reading It is therefore clear: the increase in the performance of the restaurants “is strongly correlated” with the reduction of the time that customers pass in business, especially with express visits, which do not reach the quarter of an hour.
Beyond the minutes. The data of the minutes clarified part of the mystery about the increase in performance (shorter visits translate into the possibility of attending a greater number of customers without increasing the templates), but letting another equally important question be bumping: why? Why was that increase in fleeting visits, 10 or even less minutes? Researchers are clear: leading food.
“The frequency of these carrying food clients increased during the COVID-19, even in restaurants in Fast foodand it has not decreased “, They conclude Economists. The key would therefore be Deliverythe increase in orders made by telephone or customer apps that then collect their orders to eat them at home, office or any other place.
“If businesses can satisfy these fast customers, in addition to the usual ones, with the same labor, the data will reflect a clear and legitimate increase in productivity,” economists add in their article.
An advance with nuances. The 15% yield increase is positive for business, but there are experts who already invite you to value it with perspective. Douglas Hoktz-Eakin, president of the US Forum of Action, I pointed After examining the study that there is an immaterial value that is not valued, at least in quantitative terms: the human factor.
“The waiters and the bar staff provide two services. The first is food and drink, just as in carrying food, and the second is the flattery, that is, the service. The service is valuable, but the restaurant does not put a price. Consequently, the ‘performance’ of the waiters is underestimated and its productivity is undervalued.”
Images | PRISCILLA DU PREEZ 🇨🇦 (UNSPLASH) and Dan Gold (UNSPLASH)
In Xataka | More and more Spanish bars refuse to pay at the table. Its objective is very simple: greater rotation
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings