COVID-19 has completely changed the way the modern world works. Officially declared a pandemic, this virus has spread to almost every country in the world and continues to baffle medical experts with its speed of transmission and complexity. While the healthcare systems are definitely the ones suffering the most amidst the outbreak, businesses around the world are also forced to pause their work and wait for the uncertain future.
This outbreak has resulted in severe measures of social distancing, meaning that people all around the world are no longer going out, meeting friends over dinner or hosting big parties. The virus has completely changed the day to day life and continues to do so with small businesses all around.
These changes resulted in many big sports events, or social events being canceled, leaving millions of fans heartbroken. COVID-19 has also affected the entertainment industry as a whole since big gatherings are no longer allowed. This was especially hard for gambling and restaurant businesses. The land-based casinos were among the very first venues to get closed down and they have been experiencing this for the longest time. Those who were used to going into casinos are now visiting a live casino online, helping sustain the industry a bit more, and actually a very similar thing is happening with other businesses as well. Many restaurants have closed their doors to visitors and now only work with food delivery services. These measures prevent restaurants from closing and preserving jobs. Of course, business owners can only dream of previous income levels. Unfortunately, unlike casinos, restaurants cannot 100% go online, so it’s a very, very difficult time for them.
How Southport businesses are handling the outbreak?
The situation in the U.K has been particularly stressful for the last couple of days. With many more cases suddenly coming up, the country was forced to implement stricter measures and as social distancing is becoming more and more strict, the small businesses in smaller towns are also getting hit from this outbreak. In Southport, restaurants are fighting for survival, having their toughest months in years. For many, who have been doing this for a while, this is the biggest challenge they are encountered in years. While for the new members of the local business community, the future is even more uncertain as we don’t know how long these practices will last and when we can expect to go back to our normal lives. Ocean Plaza is one of the restaurants that has been operating since 2004 at Southport and has accumulated a very loyal customer base but now the owners are saying that they are facing their greatest challenge yet.
But even as things seem pretty grim for restaurants around the world, things actually could have been a lot worse. In Support specifically, most of the restaurants depend on family gatherings and outsing for their income. Since the NHS advises families to avoid public places and going out in big groups, this has obviously taken a hit on local restaurants since most of them are completely empty these days. But for those that happen to be more adaptable, the food delivery system is a savior. Unlike many businesses that won’t be able to continue their work because the delivery system will simply not work for them, these restaurants have decided to take control over the situation and make the best out of it.
Promoting their take away as much as possible. And while the business won’t be able to go on in their regular manner, for most businesses the delivery will make the difference between staying open and completely closing down. Since there are multiple services offering food delivery, and it was already a huge part of our daily routine, the transition to this type of model should not be too difficult either.
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