There’s a bunch of stuff in here (via Glenn Reynolds). Short version: Waffle Houses reopen so quickly after major storms, and stay open, because of a comprehensive, refined disaster strategy that uses ‘jump teams’ made up of employees from outside the affected areas coming in and operating the stores while local employees regroup (Waffle House also provides emergency disaster relief directly to its own employees). If you’ve been slogging through sullenly smug, faux outrage about those poor Waffle House employees being forced to work*, this story is a fairly useful corrective.
It also answers the question that you’ve probably been asking:
All of the complexity of the response prompts a question: Why? Part of it is because they can. With a somewhat simple menu and needs, they can do things others can’t. But [Waffle House’s director of external affairs Pat] Warner noted that the reputation that led former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate to create the Waffle House Index as a disaster indicator has given them a level of pride. It has also pressured them to double down on their efforts.
“It’s a mixed blessing to be recognized,” said Warner. “Now we have to live up to it.”
There’s bad pride, and there’s good pride. This would be good pride. I suspect that Waffle House has little difficulty in getting people to fill its jump teams.
Moe Lane
*Typically by people who would consider the act of actually eating at a Waffle House to be incontestable proof of being a failure at life.
Alt-Headline: Now Witness How Capitalism, Fully Operational, Works
There’s a fascinating video about what happened when Anthony Bourdain finally ate at a Waffle House. Spoiler: he was AMAZED how good the pecan waffles were.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX_kbIVxl_o
No surprise.
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Simple food can be *amazing*, if it’s prepared well and the ingredients are in good proportion ..
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Waffle House, like most southern cooks, figured this out a *long* time ago .. and has profited.
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I am pleased to hear Waffle House jump teams are volunteers and from outside the area, I’m now prepared to reply should the gay communist associate attempt the “capitalism forces workers to work in a disaster” canard.
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Mew
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p.s. I’m also hungry for waffles .. alas, Waffle House isn’t gluten-free.
I ‘ want’ tho like waffle house as much or more than cracker barrel – trading a simpler menu for24 hour service – but every one we’ve ever stopped in on the I95 trip to Florida has been so dirty and poorly staffed that we walked right back out. I can only hope/assume that away from the tourist/traveler corridor they are better.
It really does depend on the area. The one near my brother’s in-laws’ in Atlanta was really nice. Our old rural hometown though, you were lucky to not get shot up during a drug bust.
nickle is right. It’s been years since I’ve had a bad Waffle House experience. My theory is that, more even than most other restaurants, they reflect the area around them. The one in my hometown, and the one I go to during my trips to the suburban Dallas area, are always clean, and are always staffed by friendly and efficient people.