Photo By:Sharon Echstein
Customers at Buffalo Wild Wings can eat, drink and enjoy the big games on multiple televisions throughout the restaurant. Buffalo Wild Wings is one of many chain restaurants that is gaining popularity in the Chippewa Valley.
Listen to audio highlights about this story from author Matt Keil.
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Local, chain restaurants offer employees options
By Matt Keil
keilmm@uwec.edu
Kirsten Helm is no stranger to the service industry. In college she paid her way by working for coffee houses, pouring the bitter stuff for lines of customers. But Helm didn’t spend that whole time behind one counter. Her career in the coffee business boasts the experience of two very different restaurants.
For two years, Helm worked for the independent coffee house Higher Ground in Milwaukee before moving to Eau Claire. When Starbucks on Hastings Way opened its doors, Helm used her experience as leverage to secure a job at the mega-corporation’s Eau Claire location.
“The skills were easy to translate, but I always had the feeling that I was a drop in an ocean at Starbucks,” Helm said.
But it wasn’t the constant caffeine buzz or the odd hours that convinced the now 25-year-old Helm to leave the coffee business, she said — it was the atmosphere.
“There’s a certain kind of person that demands their order their way RIGHT now, and it’s a coffee drinker,” Helm said with a laugh. “Getting yelled at about the price of dark roast got pretty old after a few years.”
She said the work at Starbucks was largely similar to the work at the independently owned coffee house, but the everyday tasks and chain of command demanded different personalities. In reference to which restaurant better represented her personality, Helm said, “Working at Higher Ground fit with what I value in a job. I don’t want to be told what to do by people that I don’t think care whether or not I’m there, ultimately.”
The idea that two such businesses have different atmospheres is not hard to imagine — chain restaurants demand different standards and require a larger number of employees compared to the independently owned restaurants.
Stock market blockbusters like Panera Bread Company, Cold Stone Creamery and Buffalo Wild Wings, among others, have all found a home in Eau Claire’s restaurant industry. This means more competition for Eau Claire’s locally owned restaurants. But the locals and chains don’t just compete for customers — they compete for employees. And this means an evolving economy for workers in the food service sector.
Higher Ground employed fewer than 10 people when Helm worked there, she said. In comparison, when Starbucks went public on June 26, 1992, it debuted at a price of $17 per share. As of November 28, 2006, the company’s shares traded at $35.32 per share. It boasts “more than 10,800 stores and employs 125,000 people world-wide,” according to company investor information.
Helm said Starbucks had a different affect on her at the end of the day. When a longer shift was done, she felt less allegiance to the success or failure of the store’s day-to-day operations, she said. “It wasn’t like Higher Ground where you had the owners there with you every day offering some sort of thanks or appreciation for what you’re doing,” she said. “People weren’t harder to work with at Starbucks, but it’s not like they were all about seeing the company prosper…they just wanted to see a paycheck at the end of the week.”
She never found a working balance between the two restaurants, Helm said.
Eau Claire is no exception to the growing list of cities colonized by Starbucks. Currently there are four Starbucks locations in the city. And Starbucks isn’t the only corporate restaurant setting up shop in the Chippewa Valley.
Even without the chain restaurants, Eau Claire boasts a sizable restaurant industry. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 172 established restaurants in Eau Claire. A 2002 economic census showed the city claims 3,974 paid employees in the food service sector. These employees profited almost $33 million in that year alone.
A growing industry means the need for more, new employees. But those with experience in the restaurant business also face the option of taking their experience to a new venue.
Chain restaurants are experiencing growth all over the country. Stock Market darlings and “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer’s latest hot pick, Buffalo Wild Wings, also opened doors in Eau Claire.
Some Eau Claire workers have conflicted feelings about the opening of competing major chain restaurants. While these restaurants offer patrons new places to spend their dining hours, they create more competition for those trying to make money at Eau Claire’s pre-existing businesses.
Mark Bull, a delivery-truck driver by day and occasional bouncer at Double Days sports bar in Eau Claire, said he’s seen the difference having a chain like Buffalo Wild Wings can have.
“So many people prefer a big chain sports bar, and it’s a little depressing,” Bull said. “Double Days has been around Eau Claire for a long time, and it’s still going to be here even if a bigger place leaves.”
Bull said even with the option of moving to the larger restaurant in front of him, he’s decided to continue working for Double Days.
“Having a bigger place in town is fine, but if I have to choose between that and a local bar, I’m going local every time.”
Tracy Kosbau, director of marketing and public relations for the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, said the difference between a happy and an unhappy employee often rests in job security. Where the money goes, so go the employees. “Workers know with major restaurants they have job security as well as the chance to grow with the company,” Kosbau said. “Nine times out of 10, if a chain restaurant is growing that fast, it’s going to keep growing.”