How One Regional Restaurant Chain Is Coping With Reopening

Cousins Subs is a Wisconsin-based restaurant with more than 100 locations across Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Benzinga had the opportunity to check in with company president Jason Westhoff to see how the chain is coping with store reopenings.

New Regulations: Cousins Subs' Chicago stores have yet to reopen their indoor dining halls, so without drive-thru options the chain is struggling to regain sales, Westhoff told Benzinga in an e-mail.

Locations in Milwaukee and Madison benefited from "more conservative" local policies than the rest of Wisconsin, he said. 

The most difficult part of reopening Cousins Subs restaurants was the absence of a clear plan from the state governments, the restaurant exec said.

No one knew ahead of time what personal protection equipment would be required and at what cost, Westhoff said, adding that other states presented clear guidelines, and restaurant owners were able to secure the PPE gear they needed at a reasonable price.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, disposable masks would cost 20 cents each, he said.

During the peak of the pandemic, masks were $5 each with an unknown delivery timeline, the Cousins president said.

The company's expenses on masks alone soared from $1,000 a month to $25,000.

"While it's uncertain, I believe the cost could have played a factor in the Wisconsin Governor and Wisconsin Restaurant Association not requiring the use of masks by restaurant employees," Westhoff said. "To help minimize the spread of COVID-19, we supplied our stores with masks and followed state guidelines.

No 'Correct Way To Reopen': The U.S. federal government never enacted a universal plan for how restaurants can resume service, and there is no "correct way to reopen," Westhoff said.

The case could be made that states that introduced tighter restrictions and a slower pace of reopenings "made a good call," but it is easier to judge in hindsight, he said. 

"The best thing we can do is take key learnings from Texas, Georgia [and others] to analyze what worked best and decide what practices to apply moving forward."

Pre-Coronavirus Sales Levels: Cousins Subs sales have normalized back to pre-pandemic levels, Westhoff said.

In fact, the chain started to see systematic sales growth at the 30-day mark of the pandemic, he said.

The restaurant chain also saw an influx of customers choosing to eat in restaurants following the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision to overturn the state's safer at home mandate.

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Courtesy photo.