Tech cutbacks, slow recovery concern San Jose restaurant owner
SAN JOSE – As a growing number of Silicon Valley companies cut back and announce layoffs, a South Bay restaurant owner is worried about the ripple effects.
Randy Musterer is not the kind of boss who's afraid to roll up his sleeves. On Thursday, he jumped behind the sushi counter to make up something fresh.
"This is just one of our specialty rolls. Some spicy tuna in there," Musterer said.
As the owner of Sushi Confidential, he's looking beyond the production line to the bottom line and sees some clouds ahead: slowdowns, cutbacks and layoffs in the larger Silicon Valley economy that could affect him and his workers.
"When you are trying to balance your labor hours, it's easy to look at it on paper and say okay we need to cut staff. But knowing how important your employees are you don't want them to go anywhere else," Musterer said.
Randy started Sushi Confidential 10 years ago after a successful career as a cancer research scientist for Bay Area biotech firms.
He grew the business to three restaurants in Campbell, San Jose and Morgan Hill and now employs 123 people.
Like many, he thought sales would quickly rebound after the pandemic, but it didn't materialize. Large valley tech employers, such as Apple, have come back to office only part time.
"Our corporate customers aren't at work five days a week. So, they aren't going out to lunch. They're cooking at home. So that affects small businesses," Musterer told KPIX 5.
Catering contracts from tech companies have also slowed down.
"A lot of our corporate clients, Google, Meta, Netflix. We might start seeing a little less catering from them," Musterer said.
All that plus the return of cold and wet weather means the business will have to pull back.
"We haven't laid off anyone. But we have cut a few hours here and there, especially if it's raining, and we have slow days. And we're not really looking to hire anyone at the moment," Musterer said.
Some employees are already working two jobs to keep up their hours.
"Obviously, we do live off tips. So, it fluctuates depending on how busy the restaurant is. Recession-wise, people are cooking at home instead of going out," bartender Derrick Agas told KPIX 5.
Randy said if recession has taught him anything, it was how to run a business nimbly, which now looks to become the new normal.
