Gas shortage latest wallop for restaurants still reeling from pandemic
Already taxed because of the capacity limits during the pandemic and staffing shortages during the recovery, restaurant owners and managers worried Wednesday that the fuel pipeline shutdown and resulting gas shortage could push their already stretched resources beyond the limit.
Posted — Updated"We fought tooth and nail through this COVID stuff. I am not about to have a gas shortage shut us down," said Renee Jones, manager of Locked & Loaded bar & Grill in Garner.
Jones said she's already working six days a week to fill in the gaps left by jobs she can't fill. She said she fears a prolonged gas shortage would mean that members of her skeleton staff who live farther away would be unable to come into work, leaving even more work for those who can.
"How can you take one or two people who are local and run them into the ground? You can't sustain that," she said.
Locked & Loaded was prepared to have employees stay in nearby hotels if they didn't have enough gas to commute.
"We thought 2020 was over with and things would move on, and now 2021 is here, and things aren't seeming any better," Jones said.
Lynn Minges, president of the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association, agreed.
"The disruption of the gas pipeline has created yet additional challenges by impacting employee travel to and from to work,” Minges said in a statement. “If not resolved quickly, it could further impact food and supply deliveries.”
Colonial Pipeline officials said Wednesday evening that fuel was again flowing through the 5,500-mile pipeline, and they expected normal operations to resume within several days.
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