Friday work-from-home policies hit small businesses in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- In this hybrid economy, San Francisco's Financial District and other downtown neighborhoods can appear dramatically different from one day to the next. That determines how restaurants operate during the week as they continue to recover from the pandemic.
"There's so many times people walk through the door and say 'I can't believe you guys are open again' and 'so excited to see you!'" said Robin Rodriguez, the general manager of Bun Mee in San Francisco. "There's almost, like, a 'Golden Gate Bridge look' to your curves on your sales (charts) and your labor and anything you would think of to run a small business."
Bun Mee reopened its Market Street location five weeks ago, waiting for enough downtown workers to return to the office. Even with more people commuting into the city, there are different traffic patterns compared to pre-pandemic days. Mondays and Fridays are slower, a sign that more people are working from home. Bun Mee stays open an hour later in the middle of the week, focusing on lunchtime customers at that location.
"You can't look historically anymore to get a baseline. You have to create a new baseline," Rodriguez told KPIX.
Rodriguez notices that for every customer that comes into the restaurant, there are three orders for delivery. Another change they're adjusting to as they reopen: fewer catering orders from downtown offices. Since office workers are seldom together at the same location and time, the restaurant encourages employers to give out gift cards to their workers.
"Business has improved tremendously. Now Fridays ... lunch particularly, is probably the weakest link of the moment," said Umberto Gibin, owner of Perbacco and Barbacco restaurants. "Our lunches are almost at pre-pandemic level so that's pretty good."
While business is better overall, Gibin still sees a lack of diners on Fridays so he says he can often send home one or two workers that day. Business travelers have helped to offset the lack of regular customers from local offices. He hopes to see more customers when another wave of offices return to work in June. Gibin predicts that, by the end of the year, they will see 100 percent of the business they were getting before COVID-19.
"We've been waiting for so long for this ... I'm very, very happy to see it happen," Gibin told KPIX.
Some downtown workers do have to be in the office five days a week. They notice the drop in pedestrian traffic on the sidewalks each Friday.
"They're not coming on Friday and you see it on the street," said Colton Hanley, who works in an office downtown.
He said that a lot of people are working Monday through Thursday but get to work from home on Fridays. The hybrid model may not be an option for him but he prefers coming into the city each day.
"I have too many distractions at home. I love working in the office being downtown," Hanley said.
For downtown restaurants, the transition to hybrid work schedules is being accepted as another step toward a post-pandemic "new normal."
"I think there's a huge amount of resiliency in the city of San Francisco because it's such a food-driven environment," Rodriguez said.