Preferred San Diego restaurant chain laying off 600 workers amid pandemic

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A well known San Diego cafe chain has now laid off far more than 600 workers and briefly ceased functions amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

Puesto managing spouse Eric Adler claimed the chain built the selection as product sales plummeted to considerably less than 5 percent amid takeout-only limits.

“We nonetheless tried using to do some takeout and shipping because our target is to sustain our staff members used as a lot as attainable,” he mentioned. “We tried using that for about a thirty day period extra, but at this issue in time there was actually no business.”

Puesto, with a few destinations in San Diego County, two in Orange County, and two in the Bay Region, has witnessed its personnel rely fall from 650 to just 20 in the pandemic. Adler said breaking the news to the team is a single of the most difficult issues he’s had to do as an employer.

“They want an solution, sort of a timeline,” he reported. “We just have no strategy.”

Adler does not have a timeline in portion since ICU capability in Southern California continues to be at zero per cent ability, and the COVID vaccine distribution is only just commencing. He said he would like to see outside eating be reinstated, specified the protection safety measures places to eat are having and the simple fact that it is permitted in other areas of the US, together with New York Town.

Adler reported he is involved that the prolonged shutdown would keep a lot of restaurants from at any time reopening.

Furthermore, he explained options to open up a new Italian cafe in La Jolla in the very first quarter of 2021 have been delayed until at the very least summer season, meaning 100 new employment will also have to wait around.