Covid-19 pandemic made restaurants to stop their activities for a long time globally. Here you will find out how the catering services had been impacted in England.
According to the official government’s website, since the 12 of April, restaurants, pubs and bars can operate outside.
Laura, 24, who works at the 108 Brasserie restaurant of the Marylebone hotel in London as a waitress, said that crowds of people are constantly visiting the restaurant.
According to Laura, at the moment clients can only book tables to eat outside of the restaurant.
A waitress Laura pointed out that the 108 Brasserie had to change their drink options, as suppliers do not have their beverages, for example, beer or wine.
Another 108 Brasserie restaurant’s issue is that some products, such as food and drinks like wines have expired and had to be thrown away.
“A lot of food and drinks wastage as the date of packed products has expired.”
Food navigator revealed at the end of 2019, before the pandemic, restaurants wasted 9% of all food they bought, which cost individual businesses £111 every week, according to data collected by the Sustainable Restaurant Association and Just Eat.
“This cost the entire sector a ‘staggering’ £16.7 million during lockdown, the report said.”
Laura has also shared some of her personal struggles at the workplace.
“Some days we have a work of two or three people, since we don’t have big team anymore,” she tells me. “But the demand of being professional is still here, we can’t show to guests that we can’t keep up with it.”
The restaurant Magnolia Cafe, located in Scunthorpe, did not agree to reveal how their business has been affected by the pandemic.
Magnolia Cafe restaurant. Personal picture
Two women, Lauren and Heidi shared their opinions about the pandemic.
“It’s a nightmare, I don’t know how we are gonna recover,” says Lauren. “It’s just… messing with people’s lives,” says Heidi.
However, women feel happy that the restaurants are working again as they used to before the lockdowns.
“I’m excited, as pubs function again,” says Lauren. “I think it’s good, as businesses need get back to normal,” tells Heidi.
Larger scale food chains also have experienced a tough time. One of them is Pizza Hut, which in 2020 closed 1,745 restaurants worldwide, according to QSR magazine.
“Pizza Hut ended 2020 with 17,639 stores, representing a unit decline of 6 percent—it’s the lowest global number since Q3 2018.“
A person who works at the King Kebab in Scunthorpe, also did not reveal anything, and said “come later, now I’m busy.”
King Kebab Scunthorpe. Personal picture
Garry, who is a manager of Scunthorpe’s Costa Cafe, said that his job personally has not been impacted by the pandemic, but his employees experienced changes.
“My team, employees, went on furlough.”
Costa Cafe Scunthorpe. Personal picture
According to the Guardian, Office for National Statistics discovered that 8 in 10 employees in the UK who worked in accommodation and food services, were put on furlough.
Even though the pandemic had been a challenging time for restaurants, catering industry is slowly going back to normal. Both employees and clients cannot wait to have fantastic experiences.
Want to read more global COVID-19 news? Check out our interactive map.
Featured image belongs to Rod Long on Unsplash
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