The CEO of the Waffle House restaurant chain is sick and tired of COVID-19, no doubt. But he’s even more tired of the nanny state lockdowns that have come with the pandemic.
Authoritarian politicians all over the country have imposed rules and regulations on eateries for months, though initially the vast majority of them were closed as ‘non-essential’ businesses.
All but the Waffle House chain. For the most part, those restaurants remained open to the public. But that could change any day now as governors and mayors – most of them Democrats – either reimpose new closure orders or otherwise ban in-person dining.
Well, CEO Walt Ehmer has had enough.
“A lockdown is going to put a lot of people out of work,” Ehmer said. “It’s really not about the business — it’s about the people. These people have jobs, they have livelihoods. They need to take care of their families.”
“The only reason we think that we would shut a dining room down at this point is if the local government made us do so,” the defiant CEO told Business Insider.
“None of the people who make the decisions to shut down businesses and impact people’s livelihoods ever have their own livelihood impacted,” Ehmer added. “The people making the decisions are not paying the same price that the workers in this country are paying.”
Eating at Waffle House gives me a sense of nostalgia. I especially like the 1950 era grease on the ceilings.