Louisiana’s restaurant industry continues to face hardships from a lack of business because of the continuing Covid pandemic. Stan Harris heads up the state’s restaurant association and tells us, as an example, Big Easy eateries continue to suffer financially from the virus, mask and vaccine mandates, and worker shortages.
“You know New Orleans because we’ve got a vaccine mandate in addition to an indoor mask mandate have seen a lot of their revenue since that was imposed drop off 30-40% in top line,” said Harris.
Harris says most restaurants surveyed in the state don’t expect to ever return to the pre-pandemic normal.
Harris says when it comes to the bottom line, restaurants in Louisiana aren’t drawing in the business they need.
“It’s kind of sad to think that 84% of our operators say their restaurants are less profitable than three months ago, nobody thinks they are more profitable,” said Harris.
Harris says there’s a lot of pressure on restaurant businesses across Louisiana to succeed.
“We’re under pressure from commodities in the supply chain, we’re under pressure from labor needs and we have less demand right now, so all of these things coupled together create a lot of stress,” said Harris.
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