Awesome 98 logo
Get our free mobile app

If you've driven through West, Texas (the city of "West comma Texas", not West Texas so there is no confusion here), you probably know it's a popular pitstop on Interstate 35 for travelers.

A famous stop in the town known for its delicious kolaches is struggling to find available staff and has been forced to cut its hours.

For the first time in almost four decades, the Czech Stop in West is no longer open 24 hours a day.

On Aug. 16, the Czech Stop cut its hours to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The Little Czech Bakery next door closed entirely several months earlier.

Officials say it’s because of major staffing shortages.

A sign on the door says they’re hiring.

The mayor of the town told television station KWTX that people in the area are staying home instead of seeking work.

“We’re working through COVID, we’re open for business, and these businesses, these restaurants, they all need wait staff,” Mayor Tommy Muska said.

“Off the couch and behind the counter is what we need to instill in these young people and older people alike, we just need to stop that $300 free money and get them to work.”

Data from the Texas Restaurant Association says more than 90 percent of the state's restaurant owners are struggling to fill positions.

Some restaurants have resorted to raising their menu prices to deal with a shortage of workers.

What are your thoughts, your reaction and your opinion to restaurant staffing shortages? Do you manage a restaurant or work in the service industry? How are you dealing with understaffing issues and finding staff right now? Let us know on Facebook or chat with us on our station app.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

RANKED: Here are the most popular national parks

To determine the most popular national parks in the United States, Stacker compiled data from the National Park Service on the number of recreational visits each site had in 2020. Keep reading to discover the 50 most popular national parks in the United States, in reverse order from #50 to #1. And be sure to check with individuals parks before you visit to find out about ongoing, pandemic-related safety precautions at www.nps.gov/coronavirus.

The 25 Best Suburbs in Texas to Raise a Family

These are the 25 best suburbs to raise a family in Texas ranked by Niche.com.

More From Awesome 98