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Don’t Blame Restaurants for Covid Spread
Last week, I sat with a new potential restaurant client, six feet apart and fully masked, of course. Let’s call her Viola.
Viola told me her story. She and her husband are both non-citizens, with a strong entrepreneurial spirit—and they opened a small restaurant a few years ago in Scottsdale, AZ. It’s in a hard-to-find location that is, however, usually found by tourists from all over the US and Canada in the booming tourism season in the Desert Southwest.
Enter 2020. Viola told me how they had finally picked up traction in their tiny spot; she shared stories of her regular customers, expanding hours, wine dinners, and more. They were so confident and excited, that she purchased a building to expand into with a new concept that would eventually also house her existing restaurant. That all happened in January.
Then came March. On March 17, restaurants were shut down for dine-in services statewide. Viola explained with tears in her eyes the pain she felt having to lay off her entire staff.
She spoke of haggling with her vendors over outstanding invoices; the cost of sanitizing products and how hard “to-go” really was for this tiny place with an elevated menu that didn’t offer take-out prior to the shutdown.
With every word, I felt my chest start to tighten. Her story is so similar to the dozens of restaurant clients I work with. The tears, the clenched fists—and the visceral pain—all too common in a year that has decimated an entire industry.
And hear this: when I say decimated, I mean demolished. Trashed. Ruined. Never to return to the way it was. I do not think the average person in America truly understands the shape this industry is in. It’s bad. It’s beyond bad. It’s dream crushing and soul upending. According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA), the industry as a whole is down more than $215 billion dollars over the past eight months.
In fact, the NRA put out a press release Tuesday essentially pleading with governors not to lay the blame for the second wave of COVID at the feet of restaurant owners. Many, if not all, of whom have spent millions of dollars (collectively) to comply with all the rules and regulations set forth by each state, hoping and praying it would be enough to restart dine-in services and to restart the necessary cash flow needed to operate at any level.
As more states start to reenact or tighten lockdowns on dine-in service, I fear my state may not be far behind. In March, before we had real data or even understood the virus, most of us accepted the fate of closing dine-in service in restaurants with minimal grumbling.
As the time has gone on, mask mandates, occupancy limits, etc., have allowed restaurants to reopen. Anecdotally, I have heard from most of my client base that many are tracking about 80 to 90 percent of normal revenue. A welcome change from being down those same percentages throughout second quarter and beyond. That is of course, the restaurants who remain still in business.
Nationally, according to QSR magazine, 100,000 restaurants are expected to cease operations permanently before the end of 2020. Moreover, 40 percent of restauranteurs surveyed did not think they could keep operations going at the current pace for more than six months. As one of my clients told me, “It’s really a matter of how long you can last before you simply run out of money.”
PPP dollars are long gone and, with a stalemate in Congress that seems to be stalling any sort of future relief, for many owners another shut down spells one thing: “G O O D B Y E.”
So, what do we do for owners like Viola and countless others?
First: Stop blaming restaurants for the spread without scientific evidence and contact tracing. They are a scapegoat and, frankly, have been through far enough in 2020 to continue to accept such a large swath of blame.
Second: For the love of all things holy, Congress—stop with the stalemate. Pass some comprehensive relief for small business owners.
Third, personal responsibility is truly the antidote to this virus. Be smart, don’t go out if you are sick, wash your hands, care about your neighbors, comply with mask mandates. Do what you can personally.
Finally, support your local restaurants. Dine-in safely if you are allowed or order carry-out. If you can’t or won’t do that, consider purchasing a gift card or two for future use. If you love a place, support them, because without that critical support, there’s a high percentage chance they won’t be open when we return to any semblance of normal.
Susie Timm is a former bank president who started a public relations and marketing firm in 2009, specializing in restaurants and hospitality.
Published in Business, Economics
They don’t need to print actual money, any more than they needed to print actual fraudulent ballots.
We need to continue to emphasize social distancing, masks, and hand sanitation while we churn out vaccines.
Ah yes, the Moderna vaccine developed with aborted fetal stem cell lines. Charming. Are you aware of the health effects of being injected with fetal DNA fragments?
If you’re pressed for time listen to minutes 11 through 13.
1) was addressed in my initial post- as I said earlier the 1st article cited has data demonstrating that mask use lead to a reduced spread in the relevant counties- it is unwise to insist on data for your jurisdiction when ample data from other places exist to guide decision making when the actions are low cost(masks, social distancing). Requiring local data for important, time sensitive would obviate almost all actions-because you would act to late. One shouldn’t wait for the wind to gust to over 120 mph in your own town to prepare for a hurricane better to observe the data from the next town over. I would insist on local data for extreme measures like lockdowns & school closure (which seems to be, all to often, the go to move). But for masks & social distancing one need not wait for local data-mainly because the data lags and the asymptomatic spread is a major problem.
2) No one knows what the level for herd immunity is-it is unwise to assume it is so low that we are near it.
3)bad decisions by politicians doesn’t alter the fact that masks work(as I have indicated before). Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. If we rid ourselves of all good policies because of bad moves by politicians- then NY & California would be in absolute anarchy( I admit anarchy is only slightly worse than DeBlazio). Furthermore there is a timely alternative- by Pfizer & Modena- we will have 120+ MILLION doses in a few months- that, with whatever level of infection related immunity we have, should achieve herd immunity.
the ships are a unique case- in at least one strict quarantine measure were employed that we wouldn’t replicate in the community. There is probably some native immunity from other coronavirus (cross reactivity) but we lack sufficient knowledge to draw any conclusions at this point.
on your last point, I couldn’t agree more & wish I could write such a note as well as you did.
Absolutely FALSE- neither Pfizer nor Moderna use fetal cells.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/moderna-covid-vaccine-did-not-use-fetal-cells/
edit- the video won’t play-it is a interview from the National Catholic Center for Bioethics on the Pfizer vaccine. Here is an article on vaccines and fetal cells:
http://phillycatholiclife.org/life-affirming-choices-3/covid-19-vaccines-explained/
Whether they print it or drop it into individual bank accounts electronically, the results are the same.
I’ve had the privilege of eating out several times, since the initial round of lock-down hysteria. I’m pretty sure restaurants in 2020 are the cleanest and safest they’ve ever, ever been. I expect they will be until at least the end of next year.
I went to a sandwich shop a couple of times these past few months, where there was not a mask to be seen, except on a few of the customers. It was awesome.
I guess that means it’s time to stock up on TP again. Didn’t they run out of that pretty fast in Venezuela?
Yep. I’d say maybe 25% of the restaurants in our area ask you to wear a mask upon entering; none require a mask at your table. You’ll always see a diner or two with a mask on at their table, otherwise everyone acts normally.
What gets me (and it doesn’t really bother me) is that the restrooms in stores, restaurants and medical offices seem to be business as usual. I never see anyone rushing in to clean after I’ve left.
That’s interesting, because what I noticed – and what I had a problem with since I’ve had ulcerative colitis for over 30 years – were the places that had their restrooms closed entirely. Including Smart and Final stores and Panda Express in Phoenix.
That’s because it’s all kabuki and has less to do with preventing disease than it does with requiring obedience. I’m over it, myself. I was willing to put aside my doubt in the beginning but unless the death rate gets about 20 times worse than it has been, it is certainly not worth what we’ve put up with.
Unfortunately, to paraphrase Lenin -you may be over with the coronavirus, but the coronavirus is not over with you….
Was everyone wearing a mask last year? If not, you killed a friend of mine who died of the flu. Masks are not the America I grew up in.
And the sad thing is that they’ve so successfully terrorized most people that in 80 years, long after this disease is cured or gone, there will be little old ladies, probably named Karen, who will still wear masks everywhere they go. They will never stop being afraid.
Ah, yes, the shills at NR and the NCBC. No, thanks. Children of God for Life spilled the real goods:
The early development of the mRNA technology itself may have involved the use of cells derived from human fetus – but not current mRNA vaccine technology in these instances- that is a significant difference (actually the quotes from COG website only seem to support that Moderna has used fetal tissues in OTHER vaccine development). If we refuse to use any knowledge not obtained in a pristine manner then we will know very little. By your criteria all current surgery must stop b/c the early technological development relied on vivisection-even though no one has used that in ages (I will leave the Nazis & Imperial Japan out of this to avoid Godwin’s law). NCBC and Wesley Smith(NR) are hardly shills- Arthur Caplan has already occupied that position. The NCBC has an impressive membership-Fr Tad Pacholczyk alone has more expertise than the entire board of children of god for life combined. The last link I provided has links to a number of sites and evaluations of the prospective vaccines in development (http://phillycatholiclife.org/life-affirming-choices-3/covid-19-vaccines-explained/).
addendum- good articles on vaccines & ethics:
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/11/72866/
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/11/72753/
https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/05/63752/
also of note one of the cell lines (HEK293) might not be problematic at all & it is the most frequently used one. It’s developer has said he doesn’t know if the cells were from a miscarriage or an abortion.
There are printing presses. And they expect the Feds to bail them out.
Federal bailouts might work except the feds are in the same boat.