Ongoing Pandemic May Lead To Ruin Of Suffering Restaurants Because Of Limiting Capacity
If they'd once told anyone that they would have to stop eating out and limit interaction with other people because of infectious disease, it'd sound like a movie plot. That is, however, now the reality, and it has especially thrown the economy into disarray. Some of the most affected businesses are restaurants. But even with some states airing plans to reopen economies, restaurant owners worry that opening at a "reduced capacity" may damage their businesses.
With the economy fast going to ruin because of the pandemic, many states are planning to authorize businesses to start work again. However, restaurant owners express fear that this may cause a great dent in their business.
This is because when restaurant businesses do reopen, they are going to be directed to allow only a specific fraction of customers so that human to human interaction or transmission of COVID-19 is still limited.
Kelly English, who owns three restaurants across Memphis, is one such restaurant owner that is apprehensive about reopening for business after the Memphis government announced a tentative reopening plan.
English shares that he plans to stick to making only deliveries while he evaluates the effect that reopening at limited capacity has on restaurants that do open.
He, however, doesn't think the limited capacity plan will work well for his restaurants:
"If you came to me, a restaurant with 12 tables, and said, ‘You're at 50 percent capacity,' I'm screwed," English said.
So for Ryan Pernice, who owns three restaurants north of Atlanta, it is the high maintenance costs of operating the restaurant like the norm while only serving a limited capacity that bothers him.
So, he stressed that "there's very little to be gained by being the first to this party, in terms of opening the dining room again."
While reopening economies is indeed gleeful news, there is no avoiding the concerns of business owners like English and Pernice.
