Hilary Russ

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – As New York and San Francisco require that restaurants show proof of COVID-19 vaccine to dine inside, many fast food chains have shut down their dining areas. This could impact their sales.

White Castle, a burger restaurant chain in New York City closed its seating areas in more than 20 locations. This was after New York City started asking people over 12 years old to show proof that they had received at least one dose of the vaccine to allow them to eat indoors.

By eliminating dine-in options, restaurants are forced to rely entirely on carry-out, drive-thru and delivery orders – which are generally more profitable. This allows them to eliminate the need for costly labor and verify proof of vaccination. They can also have an additional employee or cook on hand.

Jeff Carper from White Castle, Chief Operations Officer said that they were able to “redeploy some labour to focus on drive through, delivery and pickup.”

Taco Bell, which is part of Yum Brands Inc., stated it encourages customers placing digital orders for pickup or delivery. They also said that they comply with all federal, state and municipal regulations. This helps keep customers and our employees safe. Reuters was able to visit two Taco Bell restaurants that had shut down their indoor seating.

According to McDonald’s Corp (NYSE):, franchisees at McDonald’s Corp consider many factors before closing indoor seating. These include COVID cases counts, local regulations, and staffing levels. On September 16, three of 8 McDonald’s restaurants in New York City were closed for indoor dining.

The company stated that it continues to closely monitor the Delta variant and was able, just as in the past 18 months to, adapt rapidly while keeping our safety standards high.

Consumer spending has increased from its mid-pandemic lows in last year to U.S. restaurant sales, up to 9% to $440billion over the 12-months ended August according to data from NPD Group/CREST.

New York City’s first requirement to verify proof of vaccination was implemented on August 17th. The city started to enforce these requirements starting September 13.

New York City inspectors visited 18182 establishments on Thursday. They issued 2,211 warnings, 6 violations and $1,000 each for failure to verify vaccination cards.

King County, Oregon (home to Seattle), will now require that restaurants check for proof of full vaccine or a recent negative COVID-19-test beginning October 25. San Francisco has required indoor diners since Aug. 20, to provide proof they have been fully vaccinated.