With the current lack of activities during the after-work hours, many people in the Estevan area turned to the few still available options, including the fast-food restaurants. While all of them had to close for sitting and some also had to put a break on take-out options, the drive-thru became a new type of a social activity, which many citizens have been utilizing lately.
To ensure employee and public safety, restaurants had to implement many rules and regulations suggested by the health authority.
“We are doing employee-screening on a daily basis. They come in, we have regular meetings with our employees,” said Tim Jenish, Estevan McDonald’s co-owner-operator.
The meetings help to ensure the employees’ heath, and if someone is not feeling well, they are asked to leave and seek rest or medical help if needed. Besides, the meetings help keep the workers informed about the changes that are being made throughout the COVID-19 times.
Estevan KFC asks the employees to stay home if they experience any symptoms of a disease, including sniffles.
Many readjustments were also made inside the fast food restaurants. Both Estevan KFC and McDonald’s changed the positioning of the employees or handling the product, which includes regular cleaning and other hygiene-related precautions.
“We’ve got the Plexiglas up as a way to protect ourselves first and foremost and we protect the customers. We are … practising social distancing between us and customers as much as we can and in between each other here,” said Estevan KFC general manager Robert Hazzard.
The health safety procedures do have an impact on service times per customer, resulting in a little bit longer wait.
“We had to adjust some of our procedures to accommodate things like social distancing and sanitizing high touch areas by employees and the customers,” said Jenish.
KFC also sanitizes pin pads in between each customer, adding on average five to 10 seconds to the serving times.
The readjustment instructions came from head offices, making it a bit easier for the local restaurants to quickly switch to new standards.
But even with all the changes, with the news about the virus spreading, some of the McDonald’s employees didn't feel comfortable working and volunteered to be laid off.
“They weren’t comfortable working with the virus situation,” said Jenish. “It was just a general fear with the (information from the) media and warnings coming from the government. People were just scared and concerned. They were happy for the most part with the procedures that we do in terms of protection and safety, but it was the unknown, they were afraid of that.”
Estevan McDonald’s allowed all employees who requested to leave for the time being to do so. The restaurant itself also only could have so many workers inside to ensure the safe distance between those working to serve through the drive thru. And with the lobby and the sitting area closed to the public by a decision made by the McDonald’s head office, aimed at protecting the employees, some other services weren’t needed at this time.
Estevan KFC saw some really slow times during the first week of the pandemic, but then the drive-thru picked up and they were able to readjust the procedures, keeping all the employees and even seeking a few more people to join the team.
“We are trying to hire a few more people because we’ve actually been trying to be as busy. We are always on the lookout for some good team members,” said Hazzard.
For KFC, which currently offers a take-out, drive thru and delivery options, the business shifted from 50 per cent to 90 per cent for drive-thru, and the number of their deliveries more than doubled. Hazzard noted that just a few people still prefer to come into the building, but if that happens, the rules are in place to ensure their safety.
Jenish noticed that the busiest times for McDonald’s have shifted a little bit, but the traditional breakfast, lunch and supper windows are still the times when they see the most people coming in. In KFC the lunch peak time became a bit more spread out, but supper remains really busy and the restaurant is not seeing too much of a decline in sales over the last year, which is very positive for them. But they are still eager to get back to normal.
Jenish also said that they are ultimately looking forward to reopening the dining room, but with no clarity about when it’s going to happen and what changes will have to occur to make it safe for the public and employees they are not “overly excited” yet.
McDonald’s drive-thru is currently open from 5 a.m.-10 p.m.
KFC is open for drive thru, pick up and delivery from 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
