SOUTH HAVEN, Mich. — The wait staff and the cooks at Clementines joked and laughed before the doors opened to the public at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. Manager Tammy Gleeson said they see and treat each other like family, many of them working at the beloved restaurant for years.
“We’re really dedicated to our staff and our staff is really dedicated to our restaurant,” Gleeson said during an interview with Fox 17. “So, we’re really trying to make this as easy as we possibly can right now just to get through to October.”
Right now, the staff feels burned out, she said, and it stems from being short staffed. So, management decided to close its doors on Sundays to give them some rest.
“Closing one day a week was kind of necessary. We, a month ago, were running every two weeks over 200 hours of overtime,” Gleeson said. “So, when you already have a short staff and they’re working 60-80 hours a week in June and you haven’t hit the height of your season, it’s just really difficult to continue at that point.”
When u go to Clementines in So. Haven to do a story on why they closed on Sundays & they decide to feed u instead.
— Lauren Edwards (@LaurenEdwardsTV) June 28, 2022
They must know that food is my love language!
STORY: They’re closing on Sundays to give their 👨🍳 rest. They’re short-staffed & work 60-80 hrs a week. // @FOX17 pic.twitter.com/4mUHX9HbyF
Gleeson said they’re all exhausted. On a typical day, they can walk up to six miles in the restaurant, waiting tables and serving customers.
“It’s hot. It’s sweaty. God bless them for doing what they do. Otherwise, if you don’t have dishes, you can’t make food. I mean it's just a snowball effect. So, you have to have those guys,” Gleeson said. “But, when it’s already hot and sweaty and you’re working really hard and then you’re doing it on overtime, tempers flare.”
Gleeson said she has friends in the restaurant industry in other states and they too are experiencing a labor shortage, among other challenges.
“We’re not out of the woods quite yet because of all of the things that are still going on that has a unique impact on our small businesses owners,” said Alexa Kramer, director of government operations with the Small Business Association of Michigan. “So, that includes high prices, supply chains disruptions and work force shortages. So, I think that our small business owners through the pandemic have been overall resilient. We’re still being pinched from all different angles.”
SBAM represents more than 30,000 small businesses in Michigan and offers a plethora of programs to help them stay afloat. She said during a Zoom interview that inflation is one of their toughest hurdles right now.
“Our most recent survey that we did of SBAM members showed that 61 percent said that inflation was the biggest burden on their day-to-day operations and the biggest problems that's facing their businesses,” Kramer said. “We talk inflation but it’s really high prices. We’re seeing high prices from all different angles.”
Gleeson said they’re feeling the inflation pinch. They had to increase prices, which they didn’t want to do, but had to.
“Stocking, like stocking the restaurant, you know our head chef makes out an order and the next day he gets emails saying 50 percent of your order isn’t available,” Gleeson said. “So the whole pandemic hasn’t just affected restaurants, it's affected the whole supply chain.”
Kramer said they’re starting to see an upswing in all small businesses trying to rebounding. The Food and Beverage Services Global Market Report estimates that the market will grow from $3.2 billion in 2021 to $3.6 billion in 2022.
Gleeson said they and many restaurants are doing the best they can to get by. They’re hiring, and she believes the industry will recover fully in a few years.
In the meantime, she asked that customers be patient.
“It’s just really, really difficult right now for everyone in the industry. So if people could bring a little extra patience. South Haven is a really small town and our population triples and sometimes quadruples in a day or two,” Gleeson said. “So, we do the best we can, all of the restaurants, to take care of everyone who’s here. But, it’s hard. So, we just ask people if you can, just be kind. Bring your patience.”
