Who could forget when fast food chains closed their dining rooms during the height of the pandemic; it seemed like suddenly overnight there was no other way to get food than delivery or contactless pick-up. As if quarantining for months and only seeing people over Zoom wasn’t bad enough, we couldn’t take our families out to eat (and everyone knows that fast food tastes best when you eat it right away). The closing of dining rooms was (almost) as unpopular as the virus itself, which makes it so much more triggering that the Chicago-based chain, along with other chains like Taco Bell, White Castle and Chipotle, decided to shut down dining rooms again this month.
The decision came hand in hand with the delta variant surge as well as U.S. cities like Los Angeles and New York City passing vaccine mandates. These laws require that restaurants ask diners to show proof of receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccinations in order to eat there. Restaurants face penalties of $5,000 fines if they fail to do so. And it turns out, this has caused some McDonald’s operators, as well as other major fast-food chains, to choose just to shut down indoor dining altogether.
Reuters reports that at least three McDonald’s closed their dining rooms immediately after the vaccine policy was implemented last month. On the McDonald’s website, the company states that, “While more than 99% of our restaurants are open, we continue to act in line with local regulations, which unfortunately does mean that restaurants in select locations may be operating on limited hours or may be closed temporarily in an effort to protect the health of our people and you, our customers.”
The latest wave of closures comes after Business Insider reported that staffing shortages forced McDonald’s dining rooms closures in North Carolina. The operator of a restaurant on Pineville Matthews Road told the website that the labor shortage was the reason why it had to shut its dining room. Things keep getting worse and worse!
