Six Seven Six Seven, a posh restaurant that is located inside Seattle’s storied Edgewater Hotel, serves Northwest dishes that are centered around fresh seafood. The restaurant gets the majority of its seafood from Alaska’s fishing industry, which are responsible for more than half of America’s caught wild seafood as per the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
It is available 7 days a week, however the general manager of the hotel, Ian McClendon, said that he’s noticed other restaurants that are renowned for their cuisine have less hours.
“I think a lot of high-end restaurants that were open all week long down on the waterfront aren’t open all the time,” he said.
When restaurants were reopened for eating in-person after the closure of the pandemic the establishments faced staff shortages. According to the National Restaurant Association, at the start of this year, 80 80 percent of restaurant operators said they were having a difficult time filling vacant job openings.
McClendon stated that Six Seven has kept staff because of union contracts. However, it is the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the number of leisure and hospitality jobs opportunities are at or near the 20-year mark..
A seafood processing executive claimed that the openings hurt the bottom line of their business. Mark Palmer is the CEO of OBI Seafoods, which operates 10 processing plants across Alaska.
In a meeting held in November by United Fishermen of Alaska, Palmer stated that the restaurants operate with less waiters, and selling less food at more expensive costs.
“Some are among them who have discovered an innovative business model that doesn’t need to move more kilos of product. They’re moving less and are just as lucrative,” he said.
The new model is purchasing less fish from processors such as OBI.
A presentation last year by DataEssential to The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute revealed that Alaska seafood was sold at an greater median price in restaurants as compared to the overall average of seafood of $33.00 per person, compared with $19.95.
Palmer noted that processors have relied traditionally on selling to luxury dining establishments such as Six Seven to turn a profit.
“We are awed by fine tableware. We depend on tablecloths that are white. That’s the only way we can make a difference in margin, and where the majority of premiums are paid.” Palmer said.
University of Alaska Anchorage emeritus professor of economics Gunnar Knapp has been studying fisheries for many years. The restaurant industry has adapted to working with fewer people in order to cater to a smaller number of customers.
He added that grocery and fish marketplaces are in addition changing the items they buy and the amount they purchase to make room for less workers.
“Similarly in the retail side they’re trying to make less labor-intensive work which could affect the type of merchandise they’d like to purchase and need to stock, and so on.” Knapp said.
These changes, said Knapp occur as processors have to contend with an evolving international market with a decline in frozen salmon being sold to Asia. Knapp stated that processors are paying to store huge quantities of certain products.
“The longer they’ve got to store the fish and the longer they have to keep them, the more storage costs, but they also have more expensive their interest rates due to taking loans,” he said.
Knapp stated that in the near future retailers will likely continue to buy larger quantities of fish, such as sockeye salmon.
“Eventually the stores will come out and say”Hey, we’re able to increase sales,’ and “All the other stores are holding their prices up. We’ll get a sockeye fish and give consumers this lower price than the other stores aren’t offering the price,'” he said. “Then the other stores will have to price match and prices go adjusted.”
Job openings in restaurants have begun to decrease from the high of last year. However, a return back to normal levels of labor might not be the entire picture.
In the Edgewater Hotel, McClendon said that despite having an open restaurant, staff are able to purchase less food from Alaska due to shortages in supply lines and the occasional shortages of seafood such as crab. The restaurant that makes up a part of an overall hotel chain and tries to purchase in the bulk from suppliers. In the present, Six Seven has to source from other companies.
“Pre-pandemic we had the most strict of routines. After the pandemic, there’s never been such a large number of seafood vendors,” he said. “So we’re trying to locate more individuals. It’s becoming harder to locate items than it used to be prior to the outbreak.”
Some processors have asked for legislation changes to tackle issues facing the industry which include liquidity problems. This could involve involving with the U.S. Department of Agriculture or providing financing with low interest. At present processors and their clients will remain battling the issues of labor shortages and a volatile market.
