The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants

What “Productivity” Means Here (and Why People Objected)

• Paper uses labor productivity = real sales per employee, not “same meal cheaper/better.”
• Many commenters argue this reframes a business-mix shift (toward takeout) as a “productivity surge,” which sounds misleading or celebratory.
• Some note the measure ignores unpriced service value (ambience, lingering, friendliness); productivity rises partly because that labor-intensive component shrinks.
• Others defend the paper: the value is in quantifying an obvious-seeming hypothesis with large-scale data.

COVID, Takeout, and Persistent Behavior Change

• Core empirical claim (widely accepted in the thread): short visits (<10 minutes), i.e. takeout/pickup, rose sharply during COVID and never reverted, even at fast food chains.
• Restaurants can now sell more meals with the same kitchen staff by offloading seating, dishwashing, and cleanup onto customers’ homes and delivery drivers.
• Some note that dine‑in areas have been repurposed for staging takeout orders; a few places dropped dine‑in entirely.
• Several see this as a major, probably permanent, COVID‑driven shift in habits, overlapping with WFH and greater comfort with app ordering.

Dine‑In Decline, Social Life, and “Third Places”

• Multiple comments lament loss of bars and dining rooms as social spaces and the rise of eating alone at home, often tied to loneliness and reduced “third spaces.”
• Others push back: many people simply prefer home comfort, lower COVID risk, or avoiding poor service, noise, or discrimination.
• There’s debate over whether restaurants were ever strong “community hubs” versus nostalgia/romanticization.

Delivery Apps, Costs, and Labor

• Visible surge of delivery‑app drivers aligns with the short‑visit data; some want demographics on who uses these expensive services.
• Concerns that measured restaurant productivity ignores gig‑worker costs, externalities (packaging waste, traffic, app fees), and risks (uninsured drivers).
• Several criticize tipping norms and “self‑service plus QR code” models where customers still face 18–25% tip prompts.

Economics, Measurement, and Scope

• Some accuse mainstream/Chicago‑style economics of fetishizing productivity and ignoring quality, worker welfare, and social impacts.
• Others counter that measuring sales/employee and linking it to dwell time is exactly what economists should do; broader welfare questions are separate.
• Thread notes the study covers mainly limited‑service chains (fast food, cafés), not mid‑ or high‑end full‑service restaurants, leaving that segment’s experience unclear.