Restaurants and COVID-19

Restaurants were some of the businesses hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic-related recession, government and business action to limit exposure to the virus, and individual consumer choices not to expose themselves led to a strong shift away from eating out. In the first eight months of 2020, the spending on food away from home dropped by over 20 percent compared to 2019, while in-store sales of food and beverages increased by over 10 percent. This led to the closure of more than 100,000 restaurants and the loss of 2 million restaurant jobs.83 While overall chain restaurants fared better than independent restaurants, those that were able to shift to take away did better than chains that relied on customers eating in.84 Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, and IHOP saw a large number of closures as major franchisees went bankrupt.85 Other chains also saw closures in 2020 as well (see box for examples).

Chain location closures

» McDonalds 200 closures 86 » Starbucks 500 closures 87 » Subway 2000 closures 88 » Burger King 200 closures 89

Because of the impact COVID-19 had on restaurant chains, we delayed the Chain Reaction survey and report. However, antibiotic resistance as a public health crisis remains. Companies need to keep moving forward with the commitments they have made to reduce the overuse of antibiotics and companies that have not made commitments need to make them. Dine Brands, which operates Applebee’s and IHOP, showed this year that they were able to increase the amount of meat from animals raised under responsible antibiotic use policies served in their U.S. restaurants despite the challenges of COVID-19. Wendy’s also moved forward with a new commitment to end routine use in its beef supply chain.