Play of the Week #2
By Rebecca Clarke
Adapt to Survive
One of the hardest hit industries by the COVID-19 pandemic has been the retail food and hospitality industry. Many business owners within this industry have been forced to adapt their operating models to stay open. These adaptations include asking staff to learn new skills and cross-train between different front of house and back of house roles, adopting new technologies, increasing online presence, introducing contactless payment options, adding new revenue streams (i.e. selling pre-packaged products), offering takeout and delivery, instituting new safety measures, and altering menu offerings. It is important to keep in mind that once emergency measures are lifted across Ontario, it will not be back to business as usual. Thus, in most cases, the businesses that are going to survive this pandemic are the ones that are willing to continually adapt to shifting consumer preferences and changing government restrictions.
Interview insights…
“I’ll give you an example, scones were my biggest seller, everyone would come in for a coffee and a scone between 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. I completely took scones off my menu list about a month ago because I kept making them and just throwing them out as no one was buying them. It’s just because the demographic has changed.” – Café Owner, November 12th
Resource Links
Guidelines on how restaurants and cafés can adapt to the pandemic from Facebook for Business:
https://www.facebook.com/business/small-business/resource/restaurants
Mainstreet Recovery Plan:
https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/58708/ontario-supports-small-main-street-businesses-with-60-million-in-funding-through-ppe-grant
Restaurant and food services health and safety during COVID-19:
https://www.ontario.ca/page/restaurant-and-food-services-health-and-safety-during-covid-19
Tips on bringing contactless experiences to your restaurant:
https://www.ncr.com/blogs/restaurants/what-is-contactless-and-how-can-i-offer-it-to-my-restaurant-guests
Make your voice heard at https://gofresher.theheal.ca, and stay tuned in to the conversation through our social media pages (@FRESHER_Canada) and website at http://fresher.theheal.ca.