IS THE RESTAURANT NEAR ME OPEN?

( Where will the restaurant business be from now on?)

The Restaurant Industry

As regular customers, we were used to the old normal when it comes to food dining.

Is the restaurant open?

These are the usual questions that you and millions of people all over the world would ask whenever an occasion arises that requires food.

Food is always on any one’s agenda. Whether it's a la carte or buffet restaurant, fast food chain or a coffee and pastries coffee shop. People carefully plan out their activities and the occasion will not be complete without planning as to which restaurant and to which type of food that fills up the cravings.

Food dining has always been a part of our daily lives. Families, friends, work colleagues and businesses whether big or small always include food in their day to day schedule and programs. Parties, celebrations, get togethers, meetings, conferences, a simple catching up between friends and families or whatever the occasion fills their need for social interaction.

These social activities are normally held in restaurants and coffee shops located in the malls, hotels, resorts , outdoor gardens and other public eating places all year round.

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The tourism industry will not be successful without the participation of the restaurant sector. The restaurant industry will also not thrive when there are no tourists. Economies are driven by restaurants that provide million dollar jobs all over the world.

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The Farmer Market and Supply Chain

The global farmer market is alive and flourishing through a sustained operation of restaurants. Farmers through their banks are well funded and are able to produce enough supply of their crops and livestock to meet high demand, locally and internationally. In fact these perishable goods are exported to global markets with high demand.

The supply chain also becomes efficient with the raw materials , equipment, supplies, crops and livestock that are transferred through efficient distribution channels to meet global demand in the restaurant industry. Million dollar job links in the process are being created providing employment to millions of people all over the world.

Food Delivery

Over the years, the market environment and demand had evolved. The restaurant industry grew significantly and had to adapt to market changes, developing infrastructure, exponential growth in the tourism industry, advancement in technology, improvement in management and labor skills, the entry of new college graduates with hospitality and tourism degrees and lifestyle changes.

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Huge profits are being generated by restaurants through its sit down business. However the growth of food delivery service had accelerated and contributed significantly to profits. Customers not only took pleasure by physically patronizing their favorite restaurants, but also shifted to enjoying their favorite food at the convenience of their workplaces and homes. Productivity and advancement in technology both at work and at home had a significant impact on food delivery.

Food establishments, notably the fast food chains were quick to combine dine-in and food delivery in their daily operations. Fine dining restaurants also started to follow the market trend and also included food delivery services in their operations.

Thanks to advances in technology, food delivery apps can be downloaded to any smartphones and made it very convenient for customers to order food online. Through the app, ordering online customers are able to easily identify the “food for delivery open near me”.

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Online customers are not required to pay cash when food is delivered to their door steps. An option to pay online when ordering becomes even more convenient. The food delivery service set-up had been so successful and reliable that the service became part of a restaurant’s daily operations.

With the food delivery service, countless employees instead of leaving their workplaces during their meal breaks order their meals online. The system has greatly helped with their productivity as commute time is removed.

Households are spared from extra work like clearing out dishes , food preparation and cooking, allowing convenience at home while food delivery service is on its way. The delivery service window runs until as late as 10 pm and could run until midnight during busy weekends and holidays.

Restaurant Business Peak Season

As is the case at every end of the year, the restaurant business thrived during the month of December 2019 being a Christmas season. Restaurants as expected were fully booked and millions of tourists were travelling to their destinations.

Traditionally, organizations would always end the year with their traditional Christmas parties for their employees as a gesture for a profitable year and are looking forward to a prosperous future for year 2020.

In my hometown, the peak season for restaurants starts from the month of September until the easter the following year. The annual flower festival is held between the months of February and March each year. Restaurant operators in the city are most busy during the peak months to last at least until the month of March before the off season during the months of June to August.

By the month of January 2020 when restaurants just had a busy December 2019 and were anticipating a promising new year 2020, the corona virus or also known as covid 19 from Wuhan, China started to hit the news media. As we have seen, the number of infected and deaths started to increase at a very alarming rate on a daily basis.

Fast forward towards the months of March to April 2020, the virus had spread all over the world at a very fast pace forcing governments from countries to close down their borders. During the same months, local governments had also imposed their enhanced community lockdown and curfew hours, all for the purpose of mitigating the spread of covid 19.

For the restaurant businesses, the unexpected had arrived at their doorsteps, a forced closing down of their operations.

Dine-in restaurants were one of hardest hit by these lockdowns causing millions of dollar restuarant jobs to be lost and seriously disrupting all the links of the supply chain.

Farmers were reported to be donating tons of unshipped vegetables to food banks as due to the disruption in the supply chain causing massive losses.

Cities, malls and central business districts became ghost towns and empty spaces. Closed restaurants were not spared by senseless robbers who took advantage and started looting expensive wines and spirits, beer and food supplies.

According to the scientist and experts, covid 19 will remain with us for at least the next 12 months until a vaccine is released.

Amidst all of these, the world economy has suffered tremendously affecting thousands of workers in the restaurant industry.

In the mind of the restaurant operator, where will the restaurant business be from now on?

The anticipated lifting of the community lockdowns in countries starting in the month of May and onwards, the adoption of the so-called “social distancing”, to depart from the old normal way of life to the “new normal way of life” should be enough cause of great concern to the restaurant owner.

The so-called new normal will force restaurants to resume operation at less than its 100% capacity that will definitely drive up the cost of operation. While location of a restaurant business is considered to be king in order to attract customers, to operate with a high rental cost will be the issue.

Commercial establishments such as mega malls generate their revenues through high rate rental fees. When establishments can no longer sustain their business, these mega malls will eventually suffer as well.

At any rate, it will take time before regular customers, out of fear of being infected with the virus, can again gain the confidence to venture out to their favorite restaurants.

If the restaurant business continues to slow down during the new normal, a negative reaction affecting all the stakeholders is expected.

We will really get to really know when the economy reopens and embraces the “new normal”.

Stay Safe,

Rossano (About The Author)

Nothing Personal, Just Business

Until the next blog….