Firms get firm handle on coronavirus

Follow the money. That’s always a good idea.

But, as you try to sort the informative wheat from the political chaff surrounding coronavirus, it might be worth keeping an eye on business decisions.

Why? Because the actions of businesses may be a better barometer of the seriousness of the outbreak than the actions of governments — precisely because their money is at stake.

In Japan, the Osaka Sumo Tournament was held this past weekend without any fans in the seats — a television-only event — despite the fact empty seats means lost ticket revenue.

There are discussions about the NBA doing the same thing for games. And, in NHL hockey, dressingroom interviews have been cancelled in favour of news conference-style interviews with space between players and members of the media. NHL players have been warned not to interact with fans, and there are even whispers that the NHL playoffs could be played in empty arenas. All of those things create direct losses, or else affect marketing, and eventually income, for teams.

Tim Hortons has cancelled a reusable cup promotion. Then it and other coffee chains stopped refilling reusable cups. Tim Hortons then axed the paper cup portion of its “Roll Up the Rim to Win” contest because of fears about the virus, removing 81 million contest cups from circulation. Duncan Fulton, the chief corporate officer of Tim Hortons’ parent company, Restaurant Brands International Inc., told the Globe and Mail, “In the current public health environment, it just doesn’t seem like the right solution to run the cup program, where people are using their mouths to roll up the rim and tearing it off to give it to team members, and having team members need to dispose of those.” Now, that’s a penetrating insight into the obvious.

Some American Costco stores are pulling the chain’s trademark free sample tables for the same reason — it’s not clear whether the free sample halt has spread to Canada.

Cancelling major trade shows and festivals? That’s happening, too. Trade shows and events that depend on sponsors and registration fees to even exist are beginning to announce cancellations.

Major banks — several in the U.S., as well as Royal Bank in Canada — are already making plans to split up their trading floors, sometimes in different locations, to prevent the virus from being able to halt business. (TD and CIBC are making similar plans, but the moves aren’t definitive yet.) The banks are also putting travel restrictions in place on staff.

And those are only a few examples.

Clearly, COVID-19 is not a business-as-usual situation.

Businesses have normal policies, procedures and methods because those methods make money.

They deviate from that when they’re facing a threat — which they clearly must believe they are now.

Money talks. And it doesn’t have to worry about its political base or elections.