Faster Food: Why Restaurant Productivity Finally Surged

For three decades, the number of meals a U.S. restaurant worker served per shift barely changed. Then, after a brief drop during the COVID shutdowns, productivity jumped about 15 percent and has remained elevated. In this episode, Chad Syverson, Chicago Booth professor and deputy director of BFI, describes research using anonymized phone location and spending data to figure out how restaurants suddenly became more productive.