By Shelly Banjo
Tara Lindstrom doesn’t know when she’ll be able to fully reopen the 56 restaurants she runs across California and Utah. But the minute coronavirus restrictions lift, she wants to be ready.
“Every day we think, when are we going to be done with this?” said Lindstrom, whose restaurant sales are down between 30% and 60% since March 16, when California was ordered to shelter in place. “It’s been one punch after the next.”
As city and state officials are beginning to reopen their economies, Lindstrom’s biggest challenge is bringing back about two-thirds of the 1,000 employees at her Jamba Juice, Carl’s Jr. and Pieology franchises who haven’t worked in about seven weeks. But many are students who may have moved back home and workers who might have found jobs elsewhere or can’t leave their kids at home without childcare. And with Jamba Juice’s peak summer season approaching, she could be looking to fill lots of new positions.
Lindstrom plans to start ramping up hiring this month and to “have our new normal by July 1,” she said. “You can’t…
