The CEO of Waffle House on how his restaurants are adapting to COVID-19

Judy Woodruff:

The question of when and how to reopen the economy is central at this moment.

Amna Nawaz talks to the CEO of one company trying to determine what works.

Amna Nawaz:

Even before more than a dozen states relaxed their stay-at-home measures today, some Southern states began loosening restrictions even earlier, allowing tattoo parlors, beauty salons, and restaurants to reopen at their discretion.

The iconic Waffle House chain has close to 2,000 restaurants in 25 states. This week, they resumed limited dine-in services in 330 of their restaurants in Georgia and 70 in Tennessee.

Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer joins me now.

Walt Ehmer, welcome to the "NewsHour."

Walt Ehmer:

Thank you, Amna. It's a pleasure to be with you.

Amna Nawaz:

You're taking steps, we should say, to fully reopen, the limited dine-in service now allowed in locations that were already open.

You said you're doing so in accordance with CDC guidelines.

So, very briefly, walk me through. What changes did you put into place? What's different if you walk into a Waffle House now?

Walt Ehmer:

Well, as this whole crisis started, we realized that we needed to do some enhanced things that we hadn't thought of before.

And so we removed a lot of things from the table, the condiments and stuff like that. We really stepped up our sanitation and sanitizing practices to make sure that we hit common touch points, like door handles and things, a little bit more frequently than the areas that we have been traditionally wiping down and cleaning, like the tabletops and things.

But we also recognized that there was going to be some social distancing requirements.

And so really, from the very beginning, and, in some ways — in some places, we had to do it at the beginning. But we set all of our restaurants up for a social distance protocol.

So, we closed down every other booth, most of the seats at the high counter, so that when people would come into our restaurants, and as they have been coming in over the last several weeks, they have seen what we were trying to do, and that what we provide for them is an environment where they can sit down and eat at a distance from others.

Amna Nawaz:

What about your employees? Are you requiring masks? Are you doing temperature checks?

Walt Ehmer:

So, we have done some very specific screening of folks at the beginning of every shift, making sure we're asking questions, like, do they have any of these symptoms? Have they been around anybody that has been diagnosed with COVID-19?

We also — in the dine-in markets, we are wearing masks now, or face coverings, based on the governors' orders. And in some places, they're recommended. But we're requiring that for all of our folks in the dine-in restaurants.

But we're — all the things that restaurant workers are trained to do well too, all the washing of the hands, and keeping at a distance as well. So, we have set the restaurants up. We have trained the folks. And I have been really pleased with how everybody's been adhering to the guidelines.

Amna Nawaz:

I have to ask you. We're talking at a time that the experts agree we're not doing nearly enough testing nationwide, right? We really have no idea how widespread the virus is.

And even President Trump expressed some concern, saying that Governor Kemp was maybe opening, reopening the economy too soon.

I'm curious. If you're a Waffle House employee out there, and you hear these concerns, and you are scared to come back to work, what do you have to say to that employee today?

Walt Ehmer:

Well, I will say to them here what we have said to them personally and in multiple ways of communicating, is, if someone's uncomfortable coming to work, we don't want anyone to come if they're uncomfortable.

So, we have a lot of people that really want to work. And so far, we have been able to meet the demands of what the customer has been looking for. Understand our business is way, way off from normal levels, even in the markets where we have reintroduced some dine-in service.

So, it's — we don't require anyone to come to work. It's a voluntary thing right now. And we understand that people have child care issues. They might have underlying health conditions. They might have people at home that they're just uncomfortable to come in.

And we certainly respect that.

Amna Nawaz:

For all those people in that position, are their jobs protected? Are they guaranteed?

Walt Ehmer:

We have told everybody we are hopeful that everyone will come back.

And that really depends on what the customer does. We have — a lot of our restaurants are closed right now because the customer demand isn't there. Now, the restaurant industry has — in total has just been decimated in terms of the loss of revenue and the loss of jobs.

But, yes, we want all of our associates to come back when they're ready, when it's safe for their personal circumstances. But we're hopeful that we get to open up most of our restaurants over the course of time.

But we know this is going to be a real gradual process.

Amna Nawaz:

You mentioned it's a gradual process.

Experts also say this could come in stops and starts, all this reopening. So, if there's another local outbreak, are you prepared to have to shut down again?

Walt Ehmer:

We are — we certainly are aware and prepared that there might be some outbreaks in certain markets.

And we have told our folks, look, this is not going to be a linear recovery. We're going to have markets that are slowly coming back that might have to slow back down again and do just carry-out service.

And so we're anticipating that in some markets. But we think it'll be more — more surgical than the blanket that was thrown over the entire country at the beginning of this. So, we anticipate that, but we're not exactly sure what to expect.

Amna Nawaz:

You mentioned your restaurants taking a hit, like a lot of other restaurants, business down 70 percent during the pandemic.

I'm curious, have you applied for or received any kind of federal relief funds?

Walt Ehmer:

We're looking into applying for those funds.

Our restaurants and our people are — really been harmed and hurt by this. We're really looking for anything that we can do to help our people. And so, to the extent that we can receive any funds, and give those to our folks to keep them employed, and to keep them working, yes, we're looking forward — for any way we can possibly do that.

Amna Nawaz:

And you, of course, were at the White House recently, meeting with President Trump, Vice President Pence, and other business leaders talking about the economy.

I'm curious. When you look at the bigger picture, are you worried that we are headed for a larger, deeper depression ahead?

Walt Ehmer:

I certainly see a lot of terrible signs out there, and a lot of concern amongst everybody in the community.

There's — it's amazing how the economy is connected to one another and how the ripple effect works its way through. And you're seeing more and more signs of people who thought that they were in secure places are going to have their jobs in jeopardy.

And even as we talk about the restaurants, and you think about the other things that are obvious to kind of project forward, we all expect this to be a slow recovery, with limits placed on group size and capacity.

And that will, across the entire economy, limit the amount of jobs that are able to come back. And so, yes, we're greatly concerned for the country and for the people, primarily, that they will have work in this country in the near term.

Amna Nawaz:

We appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today. And we hope you stay safe.

That is Walt Ehmer, the CEO of Waffle House.

Walt Ehmer:

Thank you very much.