Study: Many restaurants will not open again after COVID-19 pandemic
NEW YORK - A revealing new study finds that one out of every four restaurants in America won’t re-open when the coronavirus crisis ends. So what kind of dining options will be left?
With many establishments in New York City saying they would need roughly 70 percent occupancy to manage to stay in business when the city reopens, restaurants are now looking at other options.
“It’s hard for them to predict things like how many additional people do I need to bring back, how much inventory and supplies do we need to order because we don’t know what the consumer side of the equation is going to look like for restaurants, we don’t know how many diners will come back,” said Randy Peers, President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
The Hospitality Alliance has reported an increase in applications for sidewalk cafe permits, and some are considering transitioning to using food trucks in order to stay in business.
“While it’s never going to replace their restaurant, it’s going to help supplement what they had and help keep them alive until hopefully a vaccine comes out and everything can get back to ‘normal,’” said Ben Goldberg, President of the New York Food Truck Association.