Starting Monday, New York City will become the first major U.S. city to impose a vaccination requirement for indoor dining, leaving restaurateurs in the five boroughs with a host of new challenges to overcome.
Driven by the increase in the number of new cases of Covid-19 linked to the delta variant, the city is requiring proof of at least one dose of vaccine for a number of indoor activities, including meals, clubs. fitness and participation in indoor shows in New York City, making it the first major American city to impose such restrictions. Employees at these sites should also be vaccinated. After a few weeks of transition, the application is expected to start on September 13.
Politics is gaining ground. On Thursday, San Francisco followed New York’s lead, implementing its own vaccination requirement for indoor activities that goes into effect on August 20. The mandate of the city of California differs slightly from that of New York in requiring full proof of vaccination but giving employers two months to verify the status of their workers. Los Angeles is considering a similar plan.
As more and more vaccine mandates come from the localities and restaurants themselves, Booking Holdings’ OpenTable has rolled out a feature that allows restaurants to display their Covid inoculation requirements to customers. The reservation service also plans to publish a national list of restaurants that require proof of vaccination.
Inevitably, the New York tenure will have a learning curve. But restaurants are also still waiting for more detailed advice from city authorities, such as how much information they should collect and record from customers.
“I feel like it’s going to be a bit of a free game for everyone on Monday, where customers and restaurants won’t really know what’s going on with it,” said Art Depole, co-owner of a Mooyah Burgers, Fries . and the Shakes franchise with his brother Nick in midtown Manhattan.
Le PDG de Chipotle Mexican Grill, Brian Niccol told the Washington Post Wednesday that the city is expected to determine how the vaccination requirement applies to people who cannot be vaccinated for medical or religious reasons. Otherwise, they will be excluded from the labor market.
The job has been a constant challenge for the industry, which needs all the workers it can get. Restaurants looked to increasing wages and offering retention bonuses to attract new workers, but the unemployment rate at food outlets was still 8.4% nationwide in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Depole said more than half of its Mooyah employees are vaccinated. However, he sees a handful of his unvaccinated workers, who threaten to quit if inoculation becomes a condition of their employment. The execution of mandates also puts the burden on its staff, who would have to deal with non-compliant clients.
And verifying proof of vaccination could also mean scheduling an extra worker just to stay at the door throughout the shift, increasing restaurant labor costs. Chipotle is still in the process of determining how he will verify proof of vaccination.
“Obviously, this is something that is going to require some thought if we are going to be truly executable,” Niccol said.
Tourists present another difficulty in implementing the mandate. Depole’s Mooyah Restaurant is located between Times Square and Herald Square, two tourist hot spots, and orders from these customers are required.
“It seems like more locals are on board and understand it, but tourists and locals alike are saying, ‘Oh no, this is the last time you’re going to see me in town,’” said Depole. “This is a polarizing question. “
And while the number of international tourists is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2025, some still travel to New York. For those coming from outside the United States, some may have difficulty getting their proof of vaccination accepted.
For example, Stacey Widlitz, retail consultant and founder of SW Retail Advisors, received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK. While the World Health Organization approved the vaccine, Widlitz struggled to get some New York businesses to accept his proof of vaccination: a QR code generated by the National Health Service’s mobile app.
“I’m not a tourist, but I had my vaccine in London, and they don’t know what to do with a barcode from a foreign country on an app they don’t recognize,” Widlitz said. “They give you a blank stare. “
So far, an Upper East Side gym has told Widlitz that it would only accept Moderna, Pfizer, or Johnson & Johnson vaccines if she wanted to exercise without a mask. Employees at several independent restaurants told her she wouldn’t be able to eat inside after the warrant went into effect because they had no way of verifying vaccinations done outside the United States.
But restaurateurs will also see some benefits of the vaccination mandate, in addition to stemming the tide of new cases of Covid. On the one hand, it could limit the number of workers who call in sick because they have tested positive or have come into contact with someone who has. Niccol, for example, told the Washington Post that the burrito chain is seeing more and more workers missing shifts due to the delta variant, although the burrito chain will not be implementing a vaccine mandate to. company-wide until vaccines receive final approval from regulators.
The warrant could also encourage some reluctant consumers to return to the restaurant to dine inside. Bernadin chef Eric Ripert told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” on Thursday that his restaurant’s existing vaccination policy had made customers feel relieved and safe, rather than alienating them.
“It’s a very big difference between what we see on social media and the reality of what’s going on with the business,” he said.
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