A Quick Look at Independent Restaurant Recovery

If you don't think restaurants are significantly more than just a place for a Friday night dinner or a lazy Sunday brunch, consider some of these facts and statistics.

* In 2019, the restaurant industry in just New York City put 60 percent as many people to work as the entire U.S airline industry.

* More than 110,000 restaurants have closed permanently since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, accounting for around 60 percent of all pandemic-related job losses.

* More than half of all restaurant owners say hiring, training, and retaining staff is their biggest challenge, and the average cost of replacing a restaurant employee can be around $6,000.

These are just a few relevant statistics. There are many more out from a wide range of industry-leading sources. What they all add up to is the fact that restaurants, especially independent restaurants and single-unit operations, account for a large number of the jobs in the United States, making labor a significant aspect of the industry as a whole.

The translation here, of course, is that labor is not only important but expensive, especially in the era of The Great Resignation when people are leaving their previous jobs for new positions and often new industries in record numbers. The cost to replace and train a single employee can be significant enough to close an establishment down, and this leads to the need to save in other areas of the business.

What role does commercial refrigeration play in today's tight labor market?

Directly, it doesn't. There are some associations between refrigeration and labor such as commercial refrigeration systems that can help lower maintenance costs, downtime, and even contribute to more comfortable kitchen spaces. The biggest role, though, is the ability to provide premium refrigeration systems at prices that fall closer to the economy category. Essentially, affordability in refrigeration.

With a trusted name like RDT that offers the world's most innovative commercial refrigeration systems, restaurant owners and operators know they can rely on our products. With RDT's new Polarcraft brand of individual condensing units, many of those same benefits are available at more affordable prices, still with quality and service backed by RDT's support team after purchase.