The pandemic of COVID-19 is ongoing worldwide and the number of cases is increasing rapidly. Before this COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants are already hard to manage and some restaurants have failed due to various reasons such as bad planning, quiet location or low sales and hence having insufficient cash to pay for the shop’s rental etc. Once the news of the newly infectious and deadly virus of COVID-19 has surfaced in Wuhan, China, it has caused a tremendous impact on the society. It has been mentioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) that this infectious disease is more deadly as compared to SARS outbreak in the year from 2002 to 2004. This pandemic instilled fear and anxiety in people and many are afraid of stepping out of the house and prone to contract the virus from human interaction.
The first change that we can see is a huge drop of customers dining in at restaurants. Many customers chose to stay safe by staying at home during the ongoing pandemic. An owner of a Reputable French Bakery Restaurant in the Central District of Singapore has revealed that the restaurant’s sales have dropped drastically about 70% due to the empty crowd and this is the worst sales that the restaurant has ever gotten throughout their many years of operations. He also stated that the number of tables during lunch is less than 10 and by 8pm, there are only about 1 to 3 customers or even none sometimes.
When there are confirmed news or cases of COVID-19 in a particular mall or workplace, customers are more likely to avoid entering the premises, hence there would be even lesser footfall for restaurants situated in or near the affected area.
Due to the lack of crowd and low restaurant sales repeatedly, many restaurant management have taken the step to cutting cost. Some examples of cost-cutting measures implemented are shutting down some outlets of their restaurants, releasing some of their employee staff, shortening their restaurant’s operating hours which results in lesser pay for their existing employees and implementing compulsory unpaid leaves, thus leading to an economic recession. Furthermore, some employees have decided to quit their jobs as they do not want to risk contracting the virus through human contact with customers of different backgrounds.
The retrenched employees would have a hard time finding jobs especially during the recession. Lockdown has also already taken place in some countries such as Malaysia. Most Malaysian employees commuting from Malaysia to Singapore everyday have chosen to give up their jobs and remain in Malaysia instead while some have decided to remain in Singapore to work as they need their source of income to support their families. The management of some restaurants have provided accommodation for their foreign employees while some have to find their own lodge to stay temporarily. Employees whose pay are affected due to COVID-19 have applied for supporting funds such as the Temporarily Relief Fund and COVID-19 Support Grant from the Government have claimed that the funds are very helpful in aiding them during the crisis but overall it is still not enough to make up the loss of income they experience.
Singapore Government has also started taking safety measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. All restaurants are to follow the safe distancing measures by putting tapes on the ground across the entrance queue of the restaurant indicating 1meter distance to ensure that their customers stand 1m apart from each other while waiting in the queue for their temperature to be taken by the restaurant’s staff. Additionally, customers have to scan their Identification Card or the QR Code provided to fill up the online form for contact tracing purposes before entering the restaurant. If any customer does not abide by any of the 3 steps stated above, they would not be allowed to enter the restaurant’s premises. Seating arrangements of the restaurants have to be adjusted accordingly to the safe distancing of 1metre rule. Should any restaurant be caught flaunting the rules, they would be fined and their restaurant operations would be suspended as well. With all these measures being put in place, it creates a safer environment for customers to dine in.
However, there are cons for restaurants after implementing the safety measures. The seatings are reduced to ensure the safety distance of 1m apart between customers dining in. This means that restaurants can only accommodate up to a limited number of customers. Some customers were impatient to wait and ended up leaving the queue instead. Due to the reduced manpower for service staff and chefs, customers have to wait for their orders to be taken and food to be prepared over a slightly longer time. Some customers were understanding towards the situation while some were displeased and ended up complaining or leaving negative feedback due to their frustration. Therefore, this has also led to increased stress for the restaurants’ managers and their staff.
On 3rd April 2020, the Ministry of Health has announced the implementation of Circuit Breaker by Multi-Ministry Taskforce that would take place from 7 April till the end of May which aims to reduce more movements and interactions in public and private places. This means that all restaurants have to be closed for dine-in but may operate for takeaways and deliveries only. Due to the announcement of the circuit breaker measure, some companies have chosen to shut down their restaurant operations temporarily till the end of the circuit breaker. They might feel that there is no point to operate the restaurant as their revenue usually comes from customers dining in, and have decided to take a break in the meanwhile during the pandemic.
Restaurants who are operating during the Circuit Breaker can expect a huge number of food deliveries and takeaways. Most customers would order their food through mobile food delivery platforms such as GrabFood, FoodPanda and Deliveroo, which are the 3 largest food delivery companies in Singapore, and enjoy them at the comfort of their own house. However, the commissions that those food delivery companies earned are eating into the tiny portion of the restaurant’s profit, undeniably hurting the restaurant’s revenue in the long run. The Restaurant Association of Singapore (RAS) has also called for food delivering companies to lower their commission fee especially during this COVID-19 crisis.
#SaveF&BSG is a ground up movement for over 500 restaurants to support each other during this tough period. They encourage customers to order directly from the restaurants itself instead of placing orders through third party delivery platforms so that all the profit will go solely to restaurant owners. Some restaurant companies/owners have thus come up with many different ways on how customers can place their orders from them directly which includes Facebook’s Online Ordering and Google Docs Ordering. Traditionally, customers can call the restaurant’s hotline directly to place an order. Now, some restaurants may also leverage their order-taking through commonly used platforms such as by Whatsapp and Email which most customers would be familiar with.
Afterwards, the circuit breaker is announced to be extended till 1 June 2020 with dine-in to be allowed only during the 3rd Phase after the end of circuit breaker, which can take up to many months more. Nevertheless, restaurants are still struggling to stay open in the meantime and trying their best to take in as much sales as they can. It is unclear that life would be back to normal after the circuit breaker. Certainly, all restaurant owners would wish for their businesses sales to increase gradually after time and covering up all the loss incurred due to this pandemic. Let’s hope that there will be an end to this coronavirus soon.
