What would a capitalist catering industry look like after covid-19？-BY Guiyin Dong

With the second outbreak of the epidemic in many parts of the world, countries have introduced stricter control measures, especially in catering industry From London to New York, throughout the capitalist cities. for the second time many restaurants have reduced the opening time, or reduce their capacity.the recovery of entire catering industry will need a long time. In this article, we will look at the crisis the whole catering industry in capitalist world is facing during the epidemic, as well as the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

What happened when the epidemic first hit?

When the first outbreak happened earlier this year, the entire restaurant industry was devastated. In the U.S., for example, according to an economic report released by yelp in late June, the entire U.S. restaurant industry has been in a freeze since the new crown epidemic began to spread, with more than 70,000 restaurants in the U.S. permanently closed between mid-June and mid-July due to the outbreak.（ANDREWS 2020）

But not all types of restaurants have received a hard hit. Fast food and stores that are already well-suited for delivery have been relatively little affected. Those restaurants that were not suitable for delivery received an even greater impact. The figure below illustrates the impact of COVID-19 on different subcategories catering industry.

 

 

Image1: US sales by restaurant type during COVID-19 crisis, %change from 2019 as of April 1

Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/how-restaurants-can-thrive-in-the-next-normal#

Starbucks, for example, even increased their market share by 12% in China as the epidemic eased in March!

In response to the crisis, the surviving restaurants started adjusting their business model, dine-in + take-out + retail has gradually become more and more restaurants of the standard. According to data released by Kantar in mid-March, restaurant delivery grew 18.2 percent during the week of March 16 to March 22. Other fast-food brands also saw a large increase in delivery services, with McDonald's, for example, accounting for 20.5 percent of deliveries during the week, which was a 10 percent increase from the previous week. Even for dinner, people are choosing delivery more than twice as often as they did before the epidemic.（Gladman 2020）

 

 

So what happens when the second epidemic hits?

 

However, just as the entire restaurant industry is gradually recovering , with the second wave of the epidemic, and the worse than the first time, countries have introduced more stringent control measures.In the UK, for example, as of 15 October 2020, according to the UK government's update, there are eight areas where the alert level has been raised to high,such as. London and York, and social distance restrictions have been strengthened, with restaurants/bars restricting their opening hours (UK GOV 2020)In Northern Ireland, however, control measures were implemented on October 16 to restrict dine-in restaurants and close bars.. The good news is that because of the first epidemic, a large number of restaurants have completed a business model shift, becoming more resilient and experienced in meeting the challenges resulted from the epidemic.takeaway industry has become more and more mature which also helped reduce the risks for the catering industry.

In London, I interviewed Ms. Kim, the owner of a Chinese restaurant. “so far we have been negligibly affected by the epidemic, with staff delivering their own takeaways and using takeaway platforms, our order amounts was able to be kept on the same level as two months ago.” But at the same time he also expressed his concerns on the policy afterwards, "If the situation got worsen to a level as in May, we would be affected a lot more than now"

 

Overall, the epidemic has obviously dealt a huge blow to the catering industry in the capitalist world; on the other hand it is just because the epidemic has objectively pushed the catering industry and related industries to optimize themselves and gradually have better business ideas and resilience. Therefore, at the moment when the second outbreak is occurring , I believe that this time the catering industry can perform better.

 

REFERENCE LIST:

Andrews,C (2020) Restaurants closing: 35 of the most popular that won’t reopen after the coronavirus pandemic Available at:https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/08/13/the-35-most-popular-restaurants-that-wont-reopen-after-the-pandemic/42198639/ [ Assessed 9 October 2020]

 

Gladman, R, (2020) Takeaway food performance during Covid-19 Available at:https://ahdb.org.uk/consumer-insight-coronavirus-takeaway-food [Accessed 11 October 2020]

 

UK GOV, (2020) Local COVID-19 alert level update: 15 October 2020 Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/local-covid-19-alert-level-update-15-october-2020 [Accessed 15 October 2020]