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The holiday season is probably synonymous with profits for the retail and service sector, but business owners are beginning to feel the impact of rising inflation, chain failures, supply and the shortage of workers.
These three situations make the restaurant union not optimistic for the holiday season, which supposes good earnings for this sector. On the other hand, despite the fact that vaccination at the national level is very advanced many citizens are still afraid of Covid – 19 .
A year ago, the industry collapsed, which is why thousands of restaurants and bars had to close across the country. Despite the fact that almost a year of this has already passed, restaurants fear more and more that the winter season, again, will not be positive with this sector.
The National Restaurant Association released a report indicating that the majority of restaurant operators are worse now than three months ago . Additionally, the same survey found that 51% of restaurants said they would not be able to pay their rent in September .
The report comes after the White House stated that President Biden’s multi-million dollar Build Back Better plan “will protect the 97% of small business owners of increases in income tax rates ”, a statistic that the Tax Foundation calls“ misleading ” .
The National Restaurant Association is asking the Biden administration to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which was instrumental in helping businesses businesses affected by the pandemic.
The fund quickly dried up as restaurants eligible for the program asked for much more than what Congress approved, a whopping $ 72, 000 million in requests vs. $ 28. 600 millions in Congressional appropriations, which has left some in the restaurant business anxious about their prospects.
Scott Dolch, Executive Director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, informed FOX that “the industry has lost almost $ 300 billion throughout our country in the last 19 months. Obviously, we haven’t been able to get so much out of the federal government to make up for those losses, ”
Dolch added that“ the Restaurant Revitalization Fund was critical. $ 28, 000 millions of dollars returned to our industry. But again, about $ 72 was requested for restaurants that needed it. So there is a big gap where restaurants receive funding. ”
Despite this, the union representative maintains a certain optimism. He believes that Congress can work together to continue supporting the industry. “I’m hopeful that we can have people in DC and our federal delegates continue to meet and understand, you know, we have to help all the restaurants recover.”
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