GRA Weekly

July 21, 2022

This week's newsletter is brought to you by GRA Corporate Partner, UnitedHealthcare.

GRACE AWARDS

Nominations for 2022 GRACE Awards Are Now Open

The Georgia Restaurant Association Crystal of Excellence (GRACE) Awards return to honor the best and brightest in Georgia’s restaurant industry on September 27. Nominations are open in numerous categories honoring those who have exhibited exceptional hospitality during the year.

Peer-nominated award categories include:

Lifetime Achievement
Restaurateur of the Year
Restaurateur Rookie of the Year
Industry Partner of the Year
Hospitality Hero of the Year
Restaurant Manager of the Year
Restaurant Employee of the Year
ProStart® Student of the Year
"Georgia On My Mind" People’s Choice Awards featuring four new award categories: Favorite Neighborhood Hangout, Favorite Born and Raised Beverage, Favorite Eatertainment Experience and Uniquely Georgia. These awards are nominated and voted on by the Georgia restaurant community including guests, employees, suppliers and vendors.

Nominations can be submitted online until July 31. Winners will be announced during the GRACE Awards Gala on Tuesday, September 27 at the Georgia Aquarium. To sponsor the awards gala, please contact Sarah Thorson.

GOOGLE REVIEW SCAM

Proceed with Caution: One-Star Google Review Scams Appear Nationwide

Notable restaurants in populous areas have fallen victim to the extortion of scammers leaving negative Google reviews. Le Pavillon in New York City, Nightbird in San Francisco, and Sochi Saigonese Kitchen in Chicago are just a few of the handful of restaurants that have been targeted. In most cases, the extortion comes off clearly as a scam—but that doesn’t mean the business isn’t affected. Restaurants that have been targeted report a similar timeline of events, which include an influx of one-star Google reviews, followed by an email from ‘Bernardo Souza’ demanding a gift card. Even though restaurant operators could see that it was a scam, not all patrons felt the same way—and sales suffered. Originally, if the reviews were flagged by the operator, Google would reply saying that the reviews did not violate their policy. It wasn’t until more media attention was brought to the matter that Google began to recognize the poor reviews and immediately remove them. It is important to frequently monitor any review page for fraudulent reviews.

Below are some other tips if you find yourself in a scamming situation.

Do not panic. Scammer’s take advantage of panicked reactions
Document everything. Do not delete any emails or extortion attempts
Talk to industry peers to see if others have been targeted in similar ways
Post to social media to draw attention to the scam and alert your customers
If inclined, respond publicly
Report to appropriate authorities, including local police, the FBI, and the Federal Trade Commission
Do not pay the scammer

NORCROSS GRANT PROGRAM

Funds still available | City of Norcross, GA's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Small Business Grant Program

The program’s purpose is to offer financial assistance to small businesses located within Norcross city limits who have been negatively impacted by COVID-19, stabilize, and sustain Norcross businesses, and ensure they are able to retain employees.

Grants may be used to pay:

Rent, lease or mortgage costs, Utility bills, Payroll, Business-related insurance, Inventory expenses including covering any loss of inventory, Other operating expenses

The grant application deadline is August 21, 2022 at 11:59PM. Learn more and Apply.

FEDERAL UPDATES

Federal Data Privacy Bill Update

The full House Committee on Energy and Commerce marked up new federal privacy legislation and ultimately passed it out of committee for consideration on the House floor by a final vote of 53-2. As you know, the Association has been working tirelessly over the last two months to improve H.R. 8152, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA). Ahead of the hearing, the Association signed onto a letter from the Main Street Privacy Coalition and sent our own individual letter (both attached) thanking the Committee and their staff for their collaborative work with us on key issues within the bill, but also noted that we need to see further significant changes before we can offer our support for the legislation for a vote on the House floor.

Key takeaways from the markup:

The Association and other members of the Main Street Privacy Coalition (MSPC) were able to negotiate language that was inserted into the newest version of the bill that sufficiently protects customer loyalty programs (Section 104).
The Association and other members of MSPC were also able to negotiate new language regarding service provider and third-party obligations (Section 302). The negotiated language was adopted into the underlying bill through a bipartisan amendment offered by Reps. Hudson (R-NC) and O’Halleran (D-AZ) that was agreed to via voice vote.
During the markup, other noteworthy partisan amendments were introduced and subsequently withdrawn, including on issues such as increasing small business protections (from Rep. Walberg (R-MI)), providing sole enforcement authority to the Federal Trade Commission (from Rep. Hudson (R-NC)), and striking a provision providing the California Privacy Protection Agency with additional enforcement powers (from Rep. Long (R-MO)).
It’s also worth noting that Rep. Eshoo (D-CA) offered an amendment that would further weaken the preemption language within ADPPA, making the federal law the “floor” while permitting states to legislate on data privacy as long as their laws are even more stringent than this proposed federal standard. The amendment failed by a vote of 8-48, but we believe that this could indicate that the California delegation (including Speaker Pelosi) may want to exempt California data privacy laws altogether if the bill makes it to the House floor.

Next Steps: The Association will continue to advocate for significant changes to the ADPPA’s preemption and private right of action provisions, among others. At this point, the Association is not in support of the bill in its current form, and we do not anticipate seeing the changes that need to be made prior to the bill being considered on the House floor. It is unclear at this time if or when the bill will reach the House floor, but we will continue to keep you apprised of any developments the process continues to unfold.

Take the Association’s Latest Restaurant Operator Survey

As the National Restaurant Association and state restaurant associations continue to advocate on behalf of the industry, please help us quantify and further illustrate how current business conditions are impacting the restaurant industry. The Association Research Group developed a brief survey designed to collect important data to inform our ongoing advocacy activities.

Restaurant operators: Please take a few minutes to complete the survey.

RESTAURANT SAVINGS

NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline | National Suicide Prevention

988 has been designated as the new three-digit dialing code that will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. When people call, text, or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen, understand how their problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary. While some areas may be currently able to connect to the Lifeline by dialing 988, this dialing code will be available to everyone across the United States starting on July 16, 2022.

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the United States. The current Lifeline phone number (1-800-273-8255) will always remain available to people in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, even after 988 is launched nationally. Learn more.