Multiple Chick-fil-A locations close their dining rooms due to worker shortage

NEW YORK - While restaurants across the country have reopened their dining rooms after closing them due to the pandemic, a new problem has surfaced: Many businesses have reported having issues with staffing and are struggling to hire enough workers to meet the customers’ needs.

Now, at least two Chick-fil-A locations are closing their dining rooms again due to staffing issues.

Both restaurants are located in Alabama. The Chick-fil-A in McCalla and in Madison posted messages to their respective Facebook pages explaining the situation. The posts both describe a similar situation: While customers are ready to eat in the dining rooms again, there just aren’t enough workers to provide proper service.

The Madison Chick-fil-A wrote that it is currently "in the middle of a job crisis." According to the post, the restaurant is receiving much fewer job applications than it normally does. Even worse, many applicants aren’t even showing up for their interviews.

The post continues, "Unfortunately, because of this issue, we are having to temporarily close our dining room, turn off our mobile curbside ordering option, as well as our mobile carryout option. This was done to help reduce the stress on the team members we currently have but also to be able to still provide you with the Chick-fil-A experience you expect, just through a limited venue. We have some of the best team members in the world. They work hard every day, but they are tired and overextended. We have grown tremendously, but we need to add to our roster."

The post concludes by saying that the restaurant hopes to return to normal as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the McCalla Chick-fil-A describes a similar situation. As the location prepares for the upcoming fall season, which is busy due to returning students and the holidays, it writes that it cannot schedule enough workers to provide "the excellent service that our guests deserve."

"We are very appreciative, but our team cannot continue at the pace we are at," the post states. "Our team members are exhausted and there is no relief for them in our roster."

It continues, "Our team humbly asks for your patience as we recalibrate. We will be closing our dining room on Monday, August 23rd. This decision was not made lightly, as we made every effort to reopen our dining room on July 20th. We will continue serving our guests in the Drive Thru and Mobile Curbside."

Fox Business contacted Chick-fil-A for comment but representatives for the company did not immediately respond.