Restaurants Closing Down
Some restaurants did not survive COVID-19. I don’t know the situation in your town/city. The 2020 pandemic is long gone, so I thought it would be business as usual for eating places that survived.
That is why I was surprised to see the ‘anchor’ restaurant at an outdoor mall closed. It’s a clothing store now. I say anchor because of its location. It was the first thing you saw when you walked up the steps from the river. It was opposite the car park and the bus stop. It was opposite the skating rink and near the skates’ rental shop. The restaurant also had feeding chairs for babies. That means it was a family restaurant, not a ‘romantic dinner’ kind of place.
It was always full and people who wanted to go in waited in line outside, blocking the mall entrance. What went wrong? Managers are incognito so I cannot ask them about the why’s and when’s. I’m interested in the reasons because of feeder suppliers. It’s something we don’t think about a lot, but there are small businesses that feed restaurants with milk, coffee, hamburger rolls, bagels, cakes, cheese, fruit and vegetables, fruit juices, cold meat etc. They go under if restaurants go out of business.
What went wrong? Bad service? Lack of staff? That is a possibility because waitressing is a minimum wage job. Tips used to be an incentive but we don’t tip anymore. Some kids would rather hustle online, than wait tables in restaurants and say: Are you ready to order?
Cellphones are another probable reason why restaurants are going out of business. We order a green salad and organic water then sit there for two hours massaging our phones. And, what the hell is organic water? See? Another reason why restaurants left town.
Nonqaba waka Msimang
Blogger Without Borders
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