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As Restaurants and Casinos Reopen, You Likely Won’t See Buffets
But they’re not dead yet
Restaurants are reopening and sprawling onto sidewalks. New York City’s hottest spots are yo-yo-ing as Mayor Bill de Blasio weighs the safety of indoor dining, while the craps tables in Las Vegas casinos have reopened as if we’re not in the middle of a global pandemic that’s already killed half a million worldwide. Michelin-starred restaurants such as Noma have rebranded as burger joints to keep business going, and countless others have signed up for UberEats, Postmates, and Deliveroo. But there’s one place where the fryers have fallen silent and the serving spoons have been downed.
Buffets across the globe have shut their doors, with little hope of reopening soon. And with their future on hold longer than the questionable eggplant parm gently congealing under frazzled heat lamps, a multi-billion dollar industry has been placed into deep freeze.
The buffet market is an $8.5 billion industry in the United States, according to analysts IBISWorld. Loyal customers and the popularity of big industrial giants in the South helped keep the market healthy. While the U.S. Southeast is home to one in four Americans, it’s the site of 37.8 percent of buffets, according to IBISWorld. It employs nearly 110,000 people across almost 6,000 sites. Before the world…
