Productivity here is sales per employee. That's why productivity has "shot up" during the pandemic. "Productivity" remained high because you can look page 20 where people no longer stay at the restaurant and just order food online or food to go.
tl;dr: restaurants are becoming shittier and people are just grabbing food. that makes it possible for the restaurant to maximize his sales/head count. There is no real "productivity" gain here. You removed parts of the usual service, put more load on your employees and still charge high prices.
tl;dr: restaurants are becoming shittier and people are just grabbing food. that makes it possible for the restaurant to maximize his sales/head count. There is no real "productivity" gain here. You removed parts of the usual service, put more load on your employees and still charge high prices.