SeeCalifornia.com

As far as eating out goes, it’s practically business as usual for our family. We “do takeout” every day and haven’t sat down in a restaurant to dine since a year ago for someone’s birthday.

However, our takeout adventures have taken some twists and turns during the COVID-19 crisis in which restaurants are no longer permitted to serve customers in their dining areas.

We’ve spoken to many restaurant workers/owners and among them, our favorite Chinese restaurant we recently promoted suddenly had a note on the window today about being closed due to coronavirus.

One of our Italian favorites with a dining room nearly at capacity most weekends has adjusted to curbside pick-up, though the Chicken Limon in our food order today was smaller than usual.

Yesterday we did Greek fast food takeout. The eatery’s restaurant traffic has been slow but picked up when they offered 20% off the entire menu all Saturday!

According to National Restaurant Association new research details early impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the restaurant industry. A survey of more than 4,000 operators offers details on how outbreak is hurting sales and operations.

As the coronavirus epidemic rages on…

• 88% of operators reported total sales volume March 1-22, 2020 was lower than the same period a year ago
• 70% have had to lay off employees and reduce the number of hours worked
• More than 60% say they have had to reduce their operating hours
• 54% of restaurant operators have switched to off-premises service only
• Roughly 50% anticipate more layoffs and hourly reductions over the next 30 days
• 44% have temporarily closed their restaurants
• 11% say they anticipate permanently closing within 30 days
• 3% of restaurant operators have already permanently closed