Black-Owned Restaurants Disproportionately Impacted During COVID Pandemic
Black-owned restaurants were hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a study by the University of Washington, during the summer of 2020, there was a move to support Black-owned restaurants and other businesses with labeling. However, the August 25 study reports “new research, using cell phone location data, shows that visits to restaurants that identify as Black-owned, compared to those without a label, dropped off after some initial spikes and were inconsistent across 20 U.S cities.”
Bo Zhao, an associate professor of geography at the University of Washington who worked on the study via his Humanistic GIS Lab, says, “Big tech plays an increasingly influential role in almost every aspect of our everyday life, especially in today’s economic recovery, and the Black-owned labeling campaign appears to be well-intended. But what have been the consequences? As allyship to minorities has become a core value of our time, how can big tech become a better and more inclusive ally? This research provides a timely case study.”
During the first year of the pandemic, combined with racial justice outcry following the murder of George Floyd, tech companies like Google, Yelp and DoorDash started “Black-owned” labeling campaigns to encourage customer support for restaurants and other businesses.
Overall, researchers for the study found there were statistically significant differences between Black-owned and “ownership-unreported” restaurants throughout 20 cities, primarily measured by relative declines in visits. Early in the pandemic, visits to Black-owned businesses outpaced those to ownership-unreported businesses, peaking in June and July, but eventually declines caused larger disparities between businesses with and without the label.
This isn’t the only study showing the impact of the pandemic on Black businesses. Earlier this year, research found that a disproportionate 41 percent of Black ownership decreased and 51 percent of Black-owned businesses experienced low sales. It was the largest decline of any racial group during the pandemic.
