Noor-ul-ain Siddiqui - Atufa Siddiqui- IR

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 Effect of Covid-19 on Covid-19:

 Assigned by Sir Sohail Sangi 

Magazine and Newspaper Production

Group members: Noor-ul-ain Siddiqui -118 

 Atufa Siddiqui- 36 

Investigation Report 

Medium: English 

Introduction: Covid-19 has affected almost every area of life and the whole year 2020. It was an unexpected year for everyone around the world. This virus has disturbed the daily routine of every institution most notably education, health and economy too. 

Restaurant business and food chains also got affected during this pandemic from their supply and customers. From owners to employees working under their organisations, all suffered in different ways. Our investigation is focused on the consequences of this pandemic that restaurants and food chains faced in the difficult year of 2020. As this investigation report is based on the effects of lockdown on Restaurant Business, so for this inquiry, we gathered data from Twelve restaurants of Autobhan lane, Hyderabad. 

 We started our investigation by visiting every outlet came in our way. It took us two days to gather the data and meet as maximum people as we can. We tried to convince the owners about the investigation, so asking their and other interviewee’s consent was our main priority and it also helped us in collecting information assuredly. 

Investigation Report: Making through the pandemic, the main concern of the restaurant owners is the limited timing while discussing the most disturbing order of government for their food business. They usually open their outlets in the evening and by 10 pm, they are ordered to close it. Majorly, people of Hyderabad tend to visit the food market late at night, estimated about after 10 pm. This late night outing has caused these restaurants a loss of customers absolutely. 

 The manager of Pizza Max, Hassan Raza briefed, “We have limited dine-in, take away and delivery services at our branch and we had more profit in our dine-in service as compared to the other two. So, one can easily measure our loss. It caused us the loss of around 40% of our income annually. Giving further information about their price rates, he confessed that they had to increase the rates by 50rs on each item to meet the expenses. “We reduced our staff to one-third. Previously we had 75 staff members and now there are only 25 of us working in the branch”, he added. Pizza Track manager Abdullah, talking over dine-out said “We are allowed only to serve our customers outside of the building and unfortunately we do not have that much space. So we hardly manage to set up tables for about 6 to 7 customers at a time by keeping in mind the SOPs”. 

M. Asif, the manager of Khan Bar B.Q that is a small food business on Autobahn, highlighted how costly this pandemic has proven to small outlets. He made us imagine how difficult it is for a small business to compete with the brands on the famous food lane in this Covid scenario. He said, “We can neither increase our rates nor can decrease our quality to cover the cost. The order of dine-out is something that decreases our sales because majority of the people, coming to this famous and branded food lane, do not prefer to eat in open atmosphere of small outlets. We can also not shorten our staff either. Half the staff is ordered to work for 15 days and the other half in next days. In this way, we are managing our staff and sales somehow.” A famous restaurant having affordable food prices for public, PK roll point got affected the most in this rampant. 

The headwaiter M. Tauqeer enlightened the grave situation they are in. He compared the overall performance of restaurant from 2019 to 2020 and said “We had a set-up of 50 tables before lockdown. Now we can only set four tables hardly. Before lockdown we collected 2 to 2.5 lac in a single day and now we hardly can achieve the target of 50 thousand per day”. Their staff was also reduced to half. In present time, only 16 to 18 people are working in place of 40 to 50 staff members. He praised his owner Farooque Rathor who gives them salaries on time during this hard period and also does motivate the staff in such dire time. Further talking to this matter, the OPTP manager Syed Rafaqat Shah said, “In the start of this misery how we survived was only because of our company owners. 

They had supported us in all ways. We would surely have collapsed in the absence of these empathetic owners because the government left us empty-handed”. Roaming around, we see no compromise in following SOPs from the restaurants. All the outlets are trying their best in making public secure from getting affected. “We strictly follow government SOPs and are only offering takeaway and delivery services. 

Dine-in service is completely stopped for indefinite period. Though this step reduced our profit percentage from 100 to 50 but we have a clear stance NO COMPROMISE ON SOPs AT ANY COST”, said Nasir, the manager of Pizza 20. For making their stance on SOPs practically, Sharful Imam the manager of Domino’s said, “We don’t use any crockery while serving the food. Only disposable items are made in-use. We face 40% of loss per month and a great loss of customers but we ensure to maintain the distance and SOPs among clients in all the ways.” From managers to the servants, they all had a similar opinion that there should be some relief for them in close-up timings. The uninformed visits and on-time closing orders disturb their customer services and brand name too. In addition, they pay heavy fine in case of any disobedience. In the context of this disobedience, 

Hasnain, who serves to arrange reservations for Lal Qila’s events, confirmed the rumors about the restaurant. “Yes, we were fined 1 lac rupees by food authority, one for giving some additional 10-15 minutes to our customers that exceeded the given time limit and two, for not making people follow SOPs properly”, he grieved. Answering to the question that what SOPs you were failed to make people follow, he mentioned, “We have already made the use of mask compulsory for people while sitting in the restaurant but we can’t compel them to wear masks all the time. 

On that day, we requested our customers to wear these surgical needs before and after having their meal but what could we do further?” Commenting on public, he further agreed on the ignorant behavior of people for which they had to pay a heavy fine. In real, following SOPs should be the first priority of people while hoteling and going out for other visits, if and only they want to be secure and remain safe and sound. 

 The event manager of Piatto, named B.D highlighted this issue too. According to him the public’s ignorant behavior is something restaurants can’t deal with. He said “We have to ignore their ignorance because there is nothing else we can do about it. We can’t make ourselves suffer more than we already are. Seeing them not following mandatory precautions, we by ourselves give them cautionary products. Nevertheless, if they do not follow the government orders then we too, can’t afford any further loss.” Talking about down sales, he said “Our sales have dropped down from 100% to 40%. We are facing 60% loss right in our transactions due to limited dine-in.” Mentioning one of the reasons of drop in sales, he added “Public usually go out for dinners after 9.30 or 10 at night. We are allowed dine-in till 9 only. That is why we are having this unrecoverable loss.” The lockdown and government orders have made the economy cycle slow and down. All the precautions are made compulsory for the restaurants and other markets and they get charged too if one does not follow. But those, who are the actual stakeholders of this prevailing situation, they are set free. No one is there who can make them understand the need of the hour for survival. Rizwan, the assistant manager of Broadway Pizza outlet requested the government in this regard to provide an alternative of these restrictions. He expressed “We did not spend enough on the education of public even if we put the quality education aside. Our people are not even literate to understand the most pressing needs of today. So its government responsibility to either make them learn or to give us an alternative for these announced limitations.” Dealing with this pandemic, there is still a number of restaurants present who didn’t get affected at all. Ridaan is one of them. Being the only restaurant available to serve quality Arabian food on Autobahn lane, this outlet survived because of its specialty. Discussing the overall impact of lockdown on the restaurant, Saad who serves as Marketing Manager for Ridaan said, “Ridaan is one of its kinds in Hyderabad. Its strength is its delicious and unique Arabic cuisine that cannot be found and is not available on any other restaurant. Though we also did short our staff and limit the timings, still we are standing on top because of our strength.” Mentioning the reason why Ridaan didn’t lose its customers, Saad further added “Our customers can find Arabic food only in Ridaan. Dishes like Arabic Mandi, are something that make the customer’s mouth watery and increase their cravings. That is why we have our own regular customers. This potency helped Ridaan survive in the Covid scenario.” In actual, the second wave of deadly virus is bringing some consequential damages as compared to the first wave. The restaurants were on their full-swings during the first implied lockdown that the working staff barely got time to free. They were having their more than 75% sales. The riders were busy in serving delivery orders and the outlets were full, hosting maximum number to its record. Consequently, the second wave appeared to be more damaging and all the businesses including food outlets affected from it. Agreeing to this the manager of Red Apple, Shahzad further contributed that “The second wave affected the purchasing power of people to large scale. In result, the circulation of money broke down.” He said, “People were less-worried about their savings and purchasing in the start of lockdown because they had no idea they it would continue this much longer. Now they spend their each penny cautiously. This is something that breaks the money circulation. If they cannot earn money, how will they spend it?” Keeping all the above problems and issues in mind, it is really a hard time for everyone indeed but when things are falling apart, we as a nation have to stand together and be there to help each other. Wistfully during this survey, we get to know some bitter truth about the very departments, who ensure our safety and rights, actually tried to make the most of this situation. When the business appears to be collapsing and there comes no profit at all, sadly the police is not helping here eithe. Many restaurants faced this issue of Police ordering food but not paying for it or coming to have food but left without paying. The owners suffered this problem as well but to whom it may concern, where to complain about them? On end note, all the people involved in this food market demand the government to provide an alternative and make changes in the allowed timing so that they can have some relief to cover their loss. Restricting the restaurants services and lessening their dine-in capacity will not help public to stay healthy and well. If public safety is the first and foremost thing to consider then economy is not anything less to ignore. The government should embrace some quality measures to make economy balance, if not raise it. 

#Noor-ul-ainSiddiqui, #AtufaSiddiqui, #Covid-19,  #RestaurantBusiness

Practical work carried under supervision of Sir Sohail Sangi 

Media & Communication Studies, University of Sindh