Have you been noticing longer waits in Bluffton drive-thrus? There’s a reason for that
You might not see them all from the drive-thru, but it takes around 20 employees to fully staff a McDonald’s restaurant each shift.
The McDonald’s on Buckwalter Parkway in Bluffton isn’t always that lucky, though.
Although the number of actual people per shift varies, Buckwalter McDonald’s owner Laura Eggers said she can have as low as eight to 10 employees working any given shift.
The first thing to suffer when that happens is the drive-thru.
“The drive-thru is 70 percent of our business, and it just slows that down,” Eggers said.
According to franchise owners, the shortage of affordable housing for the workforce — paired with an oft-reported building and population “boom” in Bluffton — has left fast food restaurants in the area in a bind when it comes to hiring.
While the shortage of workers is a well-known issue for mom and pop shops, high-end restaurants on nearby Hilton Head Island and public service industries, customers at the area’s national fast food chains are feeling the effects of the scarcity too.
Short-staffing has caused some places to open later and close earlier and has led to longer wait times for patrons, who sometimes leave the drive-thru when lunch or their morning coffee takes too long.
“I know we’re not the only people out there having these issues,” Eggers said.
On May 19, the Kroger grocery store in Buckwalter, the newest grocery store in town, reportedly had troubles opening on time due to lack of staff and cashiers.
Grocery shoppers waited outside the doors of the store, according to posts on Facebook from Bluffton residents.
Fast casual chains such as Panera Bread in the Tanger One outlet mall have been hiring for over a year, and regularly post signs that dot the major thoroughfares around Bluffton.
“If you look at the housing around there, it’s more upscale housing,” Eggers said. “So those people aren’t necessarily looking for a McDonald’s or a Kroger or a gas station job.”
‘Ghost applicants:’ Bluffton workforce by the numbers
In the town of Bluffton, 66.8 percent of the population over 16 years old is actively working, according to U.S. Census data about the civilian workforce from 2013 through 2017.
That’s compared with 53.6 percent in Beaufort County and 61.8 percent in Savannah, according to census data.
Fred Holstein, a manager at the Bluffton Bojangles’ Famous Chicken ‘n Biscuits location since July, said he would prefer a staff of full-time workers over several part-time employees, and the restaurant boasts a hiring sign at the front of its drive-thru.
Holstein said the sign has led to a lot of “ghost applicants.”
“A lot of people will apply and then not answer when we call them,” Holstein said. “Once we do hire someone, it’s been harder to keep them.”
Holstein said the location of his restaurant is a factor in the struggle for workers and that with so many businesses looking for workers, it’s easier for an employee to jump from job to job.
Affordable housing
Eggers — who owns two other McDonald’s restaurants in Beaufort — said those stores “don’t have those types of problems” with hiring as she does south of the Broad River.
Asked why, she said the surrounding neighborhoods in Bluffton are too expensive for her potential employees.
The average rent in Bluffton is $1,456 per month, per U.S. Census data collected between 2013 and 2017. That’s well above what was deemed “affordable” for a single worker in a recent study on workforce housing commissioned by the Hilton Head Island Town Council — $850 per month.
And as Bluffton gets more expensive, the ratio of workers can’t keep up.
“The biggest challenge is there doesn’t seem to be enough people who want those types of jobs for the massive amount of buildings going up in that area,” Eggers said.
In the Buckwalter area, a 35-acre residential and retail community named Washington Square is in the early stages, according to previous reporting by The Island Packet.
That development is coming along with tree-clearing that has worried nearby residents.
“I was born and raised and lived here my entire 61 years,” wrote Cathie Boulware on a Bluffton community page on Facebook earlier this month. “It brings tears to my eyes to see what has happened to the Bluffton that was ‘a state of mind.’”
But Washington Square, if it’s affordable for the workforce, won’t solve staffing problems for nearby businesses this summer.
Eggers said her McDonald’s restaurant won’t be cutting hours to respond to the thin staffing, even though other stores and restaurants on Hilton Head Island have closed Mondays or early on Sundays.
“We’re trying to get more people and we’ve increased wages,” she said. “But you just try to best use the resources where you have them.”
