(upbeat music) - Coming up next on this special Labor Day edition of Arizona Horizon, a look at the post-pandemic state of Arizona's restaurant industry.

Also, tonight we'll hear about a program that helps low income people and those without homes find employment and support services.

And we'll take a look at the state of Black-owned businesses in Arizona.

It's all ahead on this special edition of Arizona Horizon.

- [Announcer] This hour of local news is made possible by contributions from the friends of PBS, members of your PBS station.

Thank you.

- Good evening and welcome to this special Labor Day edition of Arizona Horizon.

I'm Ted Simons.

A recent report shows that restaurants around the country are adding new jobs as the industry climbs out of a pandemic era restriction.

But the report also finds that finding workers continues to be a struggle.

For more on this, we recently spoke to Steve Chucri, president and CEO of the Arizona Restaurant Association.

(logo whooshes) What is the state of Arizona's restaurant industry?

- We're healthy.

And first and foremost to your viewers, to people like you who have kept us afloat during COVID and after COVID, it's been a remarkable recovery, and we're posting about $23 billion in restaurant sales this year in Arizona, is what we expect.

- [Ted] What does that compare to pre-pandemic levels?

- It's probably good 3 to 4 billion higher if you can believe that, than pre-pandemic.

- Interesting.

Employment.

Has employment hit pre-pandemic levels?

- It has not.

And I would equate it to driving a car with a spare tire.

It's functional, right, but it's not optimal.

So while we are increasing the number of employees we have in our restaurants, you also have to remember, we've had new restaurants open post-COVID, so that's more jobs to fill.

That's more seats to get.

And so it's been a challenge, but we are looking more positive than negative, absolutely.

- The study seems to find that restaurants, they are finding it hard to locate workers, to recruit workers.

Arizona restaurants seeing the same thing?

- We are.

We're doing better than most other states in the country as far as where we've come since COVID, so the good news is we're not seeing some of the same pressures of getting to that optimal side of getting our restaurants filled with the workers we need.

However, we're still falling short, moreso due to the new restaurants that have opened, versus just not having enough workers, plain and simple.

- Basically an abundance of jobs, then?

- It is.

There is an abundance of jobs, and we're willing to fill 'em.

When you go to a restaurant and you say there's a 20 minute wait, and you're like, wait there's some tables open here.

Well, the reason is we don't have servers to meet those needs of those tables.

So that's the biggest complexity that we see today, but we're certainly getting there.

- I'm also reading from the report that turnaround is a factor that people are coming and going.

When you do hire someone, they're not staying as long as they used to.

Again, you seeing that?

- The turnover is tough.

I mean, this is not an industry for the faint of heart, but primarily what we're looking for, the back of the house is filling nicely.

It's the front dining room areas getting servers and others.

Those salaries are very robust, Ted, and you can make good money, especially if you're a college student or even a young adult or a single mom or dad that needs to meet the obligations of taking the kids to school and also working a job.

So we are that industry of convenience.

But you know, we'd love to see more people coming through our doors looking for employment.

- The federal benefits, restaurants definitely helped by these federal benefits.

Talk to us how much they were helped and how they were helped - Substantially.

I mean, you also saw the PPP loans, the array of opportunities that were given to many businesses, not just the restaurant industry.

It helped us tremendously, but we still saw about 1,000 doors closed during COVID here in Arizona.

We laid off 80% of our workforce in a matter of 48 hours, which amounted to about 2.75 billion in losses that year alone.

In our daily payroll, Ted, this is the most significant, went from 14 million per day down to 2 million per day during COVID.

- Wow.

- So you can see that recovery took some time, but we're getting to much better terrain for the restaurant industry.

- And the recovery is there.

But there's concern, and we've talked about this in variety of different ways, that the jobless benefits are, we heard in the past, they're keeping people from working.

They're not going out there because they're sitting down, they think they can get free money.

Is that a real thing?

- Well, I'll tell you, look, you know, I served time in public office, and we can always give these one-answer question or answers and throw things about, bureaucracy and everything else.

I will tell you without question we did have a problem where people were getting so much money and benefits that it kept them on their couches.

It kept them at home and out of the workforce.

But that quickly corrected.

That took about six months post-COVID, and when I say post-COVID, I'm talking late 2020 into 2021.

But it was a real factor.

And wasn't just here in Arizona, it was across the country.

- Was it a factor as well where restaurants had to look at how they treated, for lack of a better word, you know, treated employees, how the work environments were?

Did work environments change for the better because of this?

- They changed for the better.

And I will tell you this: as someone who's been a part of this industry for more than 20 years, our employees are a family.

But in some, cases some restaurants took their employees for granted.

And I think that's easy to do in life in general, but post-COVID we have a whole new appreciation for the value, and you're touching a very good point in that we see even more so the value that these great individuals brought to our restaurants and our workforce each and every day.

- I would think post-COVID as well, I just know from our dining habits, post-COVID, a lot of people wanna see takeout.

A lot of people wanna see a different type of service, outdoor seating, all of these things.

How much did that change the nature of restaurants in Arizona?

- Remarkably, your total sales for to-go were about 5% pre-COVID.

During COVID and post-COVID, they've risen to 25%.

- [Ted] Wow.

- And they've stayed there, Ted.

That's a remarkable thing, is that I expected them to kind of ratchet back, right?

But they haven't.

They volleyed between 20 to 25%.

And the unique thing for restaurants is you have to make sure you have good to-go packaging, you have to have all these other factors, which I think you alluded to in the question, which has been a challenge, but it's going very, very well in the takeout front.

- I was gonna say, are restaurants seeing that?

I mean, you can be stubborn as much as you want, but you gotta change in this business especially you gotta change in order to meet the needs.

- We have a saying in the business, you know make sure you have a seat at the table, or else you end up on the plate.

So if you're not doing to-go ordering, you're you're gonna be a dinosaur very quickly in this industry.

- Concerns going forward.

The recession, there's a cloud, there's always a cloud of a recession, it seems like, all year long somewhere down the road.

We've got inflation concerns as well.

How does the restaurant industry see these challenges, perhaps challenges ahead?

- Well, they're very real, I will first say that.

We are the beneficiary of discretionary income.

And so if gas prices go up, if things start to get more volatile from an economic standpoint, you're not gonna go out to eat as often.

I mean, it's not rocket science.

And so have we felt that like everyone else?

Yes, but here's an interesting statistic.

Last year for the first time, restaurant sales outperformed grocery store sales on a national level by 20%.

Think about that on a socioeconomic- - [Ted] What does that mean?

What does it- - Well, think about that on a socioeconomic level.

I think it means two fundamental things.

One that people wanna get out of their homes.

They still want to be out there in the action, if you will, in a dining room.

And secondly, because of the cost ratio of going out to eat versus going to a grocery store and buying groceries, it's still very economical to go to a restaurant.

And so that's, I think what that proves out.

- Last question.

We've got about 30 seconds left.

If I wanna open a restaurant right now, what's the best advice you would give me?

- Do your homework.

Make sure you understand the nuances of the industry, from back of the house to front of the house, and make sure you have the money and the longevity to be able to do it, because it is not for the faint of heart.

- I was gonna say still failure rate is still pretty high in restaurants?

- Failure rate is still high, and it's a tough haul, and it's passion-driven.

So make sure you go with eyes both open, both your eyes open.

- Steve Chucri, Arizona Restaurant Association.

Good to see you again.

Thanks for joining us.

- Good to be with you.

Thank you.

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(bright music) (bright music continues) ("Different Drum" by Linda Ronstadt playing) ♪ You and I travel to the beat of a different drum ♪ ♪ Oh, can't you tell by the way I run ♪ ♪ Every time you make eyes at me ♪ ♪ Feelin' better now that we're through ♪ ♪ Feelin' better, 'cause I'm over you ♪ ♪ I learned my lesson, it left a scar ♪ ♪ Now I see how you really are ♪ You're no good, you're no good, you're no good ♪ ♪ Baby, you're no good ♪ I'm gonna say it again ♪ You're no good, you're no good, you're no good ♪ ♪ Baby you're no good - St. Joseph The Worker helps low income and homeless individuals find employment and support services.

The organization also partners with the city of Phoenix for an employment first effort called the Workforce Villages Program.

To learn more, we spoke with Carrie Masters, CEO of St. Joseph the Worker, and George Childs, Program Manager for Workforce Villages.

(logo whooshes) Good to have you both here.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- All right, let's start with, first of all, St. Joseph the Worker.

What is that?

- St. Joseph the Worker is a local nonprofit that essentially connects with the, I would say, sometimes underprivileged, maybe unsheltered, but the homeless community in providing them services to gain employment, and for those that are unsheltered, also housing - Also, okay.

And let's get to the Workforce Villages program.

What's that, George?

- Yeah, so the Workforce Village program is a 90-day transitional housing program for those who are working but housing insecure.

What we like to do, we like to bring them into our program, we help them with budgeting, we have meal planning and nutrition program, and also financial literacy courses.

- What percentage of those that are unhoused, the homeless population, have a job but just can't find the housing?

- So, what we have found is somewhere around 30 to 40% of that population are actually housed and living in, a lot of them are living in what we call the Zone.

- Yeah.

- And others are maybe sleeping on their mom's couch, or something like that, but just looking for a way to get ahead and to be able to move into their own housing.

- And this program basically says, here are resources, here's what you need to do, here's how...

Some people probably have to learn how to do some of these things, correct?

- Absolutely.

It's almost a pause.

I think that's kind of a way you can think about it.

It's a 90-day pause for the individual to focus on work.

You don't have to focus on how are you gonna have a roof over your head?

How do you get food?

Really, it's just all I have to do for the next 90 days is work and save my money, so I have the ability to then move into my own place, under my own name.

- And again, it's as you mentioned, 12 weeks, correct?

- Yes, 12 weeks.

- Okay, you gotta work.

Gotta work, what?

Full-time?

You gotta have 30, 35, 40 hours?

- [George] Full-time, 35 hours a week, and $17 an hour minimum.

- [Ted] And once you, but you gotta save some of that money, don't you?

- You save 80% of that money and the 20% leftover, we work with you on teaching you how to budget that 20% to be able to effectively get what you want and what you need.

- Yeah, yeah, and I would imagine, people need that information, don't they?

- Yes it's a very important part of our clients becoming self-sufficient.

- Why 12 weeks?

What's that all about?

Is that just a way to, as you mentioned a pause?

- It is a pause.

What we have determined is that 90-day break typically allows our client to save somewhere around $4,000, which in Arizona right now happens to be first and last month's rent, and that's really where people are struggling, right?

Is they just need the ability to save that so they can get into their own place.

- Yeah.

Yeah, and George, their weekly meetings, what do you have to do when you sign up for this, and you learn, you gotta learn some way, shape, or form, right?

- Yes, so you have a weekly meeting with your Workforce village specialist, and that specialist will help you with life skills, budgeting.

We go over your pay stubs and things like that so we can see what your taxes are, where you can cut costs, how much you'll be able to afford, and we go over looking for housing with them so we can show them how they can afford the living situations that they want.

- And so this Workforce Villages program, how long has it been around?

- Workforce Village program started in July of 2020 as a result of the COVID pandemic, where we found that there were a lot of unsheltered individuals that were working, and they were sleeping in tents, and we wanted to create a program that will get those people on the road to self-sufficiency.

- And Carrie, what kind of reaction have you had so far from those who've been involved with this program?

- Huge.

- Yeah.

- I mean we've got some amazing clients.

It makes me wanna cry when I think about it, 'cause I can think of a couple faces, but life changing for them.

Truly life changing.

- Yeah.

- For me it's huge, right?

I did grow up homeless and I completely empathize and understand our client base.

And so to see these people graduate from the program so proud of something that they accomplished on their own, really we were just a tool, right?

So it's been huge for our clients.

- And did I read this correctly?

80 some-odd percent of graduates doing pretty well?

- Yes.

Right now, 79% of our clients are still successfully housed after a year out of our program.

- The partnership with the City of Phoenix, Carrie, what's this all about?

Is this basically a city saying we're gonna help you 'cause we like this situation?

- Almost.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, they were a huge fan of the concept, the idea, and have been a supporter since inception, and they've seen the success outcomes, and continue to support it.

- Yeah It was like a $2 million, something along those lines?

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

Last question, George.

I mean, what do you want people to take from the program and what St. Joseph the Worker is doing?

- So one of the things that I would like for people to take from this program is that we're here to help everyone.

We're here to help the unsheltered, those who are in underserved communities, those who just need a hand up.

That's one of the things that we strive to do is to let people know that there is a way because one thing we say is the one way out of a homeless situation is a paycheck, and so we wanna offer employment, and that housing part of our program so that they can be self-sustaining for future purposes.

- All right, well put there, George Childs and Carrie Masters.

Good to have you both here.

Continue fighting the good fight there.

We really appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- Yeah.

- Yes, thank you.

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(energetic music) (energetic music continues) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) - August was Black Business Month, a time to recognize and support Black-owned businesses across Arizona.

We learned about the state of Black-owned businesses by speaking with Teniqua Broughton.

She's executive director of the State of Black Arizona.

And Dana Dumas.

She's the owner of Sugarjam the Southern Kitchen.

(logo whooshes) Good to have you both here.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Ted.

- Teniqua, we'll start with you.

What is the state of Black-owned businesses in Arizona?

- Thank you, Ted, for that question.

Well, here's what I can share with you in summary.

There are about 1300 Black businesses, that is according to the latest census from 2020, so we're about three years behind there.

Of those businesses, they are employer firms.

There are about 25,000 people that they employ.

And of them there is about $731 million that comes out in payroll.

So that does not necessarily account for what happens in other spaces as it relates to their economic impact, but it really is an opportunity for you to kind of understand 1300 have been identified, and we're really looking to figure out through other courses of collecting data, how on the localized level we can really understand what is happening beyond just those particular numbers.

- Dana, let's talk about Sugarjam Southern Kitchen.

That's your baby there.

That's your... How did you get this started and what were the challenges early on, and what are the challenges now with a successful business?

You still got challenges, I imagine.

- Yeah, we have challenges all the time.

- Yeah.

- But Sugarjam, you know, I created this company coming out of corporate after I had my twin boys.

And I wanted to create something of fairness and to give people who look like me an opportunity to work for a business that is, you know, that's flourishing and upright and just treated with respect for the craft that you do.

So I started with my Sugarjam Cookies, and I love these cookies because they remind me of when I was a little girl in New York, and they're tender sugar cookies with jam in it.

And you know, coming from a home-based baker into the local farmer's markets here allowed me to network with so many people.

And then it sped on and I became Sugarjam Bake Shop and Bistro in 2014, and then through the pandemic was able to pivot and grow my business to what is now known as Sugarjam The Southern Kitchen.

- Was it difficult for you to take these plunges, to take these...

These are risks here.

- Mm-hmm.

- Was it difficult?

- It was.

You know, I would definitely say if it wasn't for the support of my family, my husband, my mom and my dad my in-laws and some family and friends that really helped with the community.

The community which I mean is like my children and the foundation to help me grow and flourish.

I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit, but I'm very corporate-minded, and I think the pairing of the two made me have the ability to pivot through my businesses and be able to navigate when there's lack of resources.

- Right.

- Be able to navigate how do I make it, and honestly, it really just became a thing where I was relying on not only myself, my husband, painstaking hours, and financial resources that came from within.

- Let's talk about financial resources.

Venture capital funding, the initial funding, startup funding, all this kinda stuff.

Challenges for Black-owned businesses?

- Absolutely.

So I think what Dana is talking about is even though having a career in corporate, you come out and you start a business, a lot of Black business owners are using their own personal capital for that.

They may not necessarily be getting loans from traditional banks, and so when you think about venture capital, it really is about the type of business that you have.

Not everyone can actually access every part of that investment.

So we're talking about tech companies, maybe manufacturing, construction.

It really depends on the type of business.

But what we have found is that the access to capital for Black businesses has been challenging by either knowing and having the education for getting access to the resources, and/or having the prepared paperwork to do that.

But it's not just traditional banks that we have to look towards actually saying do I get it from?

But there are CDFIs, there're also accelerator programs that do impact lending, and there are also other resources when it comes to contract lending from Lendistry Centers that are important.

So I think some of these of things are accessible in Arizona, but some of these things are still growing in our own community.

- So with that in mind, what is your advice for young Black entrepreneurs?

- I would say, you know, really know what your business plan is going to be with your business.

Like, understand what your product or whatever it is that you're gonna be in business in, do your research on it.

Have a strong business plan.

Know your demographic that you are penetrating - Yep.

- And then really, if you are still working corporate, what I say is clear up your debt, and then make sure that you are starting to save.

What does it cost for you to live a year, you know, on your own right now?

- Yes.

- And then make sure that you have that amount saved that you can maybe use towards.

And also look for local resources that maybe have, like, we have Hustle Phoenix now.

- Mm-hmm.

- That's an incubator program that will sink you in with a local-level lending that now is available for people of minorities that are trying to start their businesses.

And it might be micro lending, so it might be $5,000, and maybe max of 10,000.

People on grander scale don't think that's enough money to do something with, but when you are starting out, 5 to $10,000 is an awful lot of money to get off the ground, and get your business going.

- All right That's, (laughs) we have a lot of information.

(Teniqua and Dana laugh) Holy smokes.

- Sorry.

(laughs) - Hope people record this and go back, so it's a lot of places and a lot of numbers and a lot of names, but it's good information.

- Yeah.

- And it's good to have you both on.

Congratulations on your success.

- Thank you.

- And yours as well.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- And thanks for sharing.

We appreciate it.

- Oh, thank you you much.

- Thank you, Ted, thank you.

(logo whooshes) - And that is it for now.

I'm Ted Simons.

Thank you so much for joining us on the special edition of Arizona Horizon.

You have a great evening.

(uplifting music) (uplifting music continues)