Quebec restaurateurs fear for their future
Survey indicates most wouldn’t last six months under COVID rules
“The reduction in seating capacity because of social distancing requirements for some and the absence of several segments of their customer base, including workers in office towers for some and tourists for others, will make the financial health of thousands of Quebec restaurants extremely fragile.”
François Meunier
Vice-president of public and governmental affairs for the Association Restauration Québec
MONTREAL — Fully 61 per cent of the 580 restaurateurs who responded to a survey by the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ) in early July said they would be unable to carry on for longer than six months under current government-mandated conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The reduction in seating capacity because of social distancing requirements for some and the absence of several segments of their customer base, including workers in office towers for some and tourists for others, will make the financial health of thousands of Quebec restaurants extremely fragile,” François Meunier, vice-president of public and governmental affairs for the Association Restauration Québec, said.
An impact report made public last week by Yelp, the online service known for crowdsourced online reviews, showed that 60 per cent of restaurants in the United States ordered to close temporarily because of the pandemic have since closed permanently.
As of July 10, Yelp found 26,160 restaurant closures
— an increase of 23 per cent from June 15, CNN reported on the weekend. Of these, 15,770 establishments have permanently closed. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, restaurants have lost more revenue and jobs than any other industry. Restaurants already operate with thin margins, Justin Norman, vicepresident of data science at Yelp, told ABC News. And they have had to contend with abrupt closures and inconsistent reopenings as COVID-19 cases have risen across the U.S.
The situation is more stable on this side of the border, but it has its challenges. Most Quebec restaurants were permitted to reopen their dining rooms as of June 15; Montreal and Joliette reopened June 22. Ninety-one per cent of survey respondents said their restaurants have opened — but the majority said social distancing requirements mean seating capacity in their establishments is now just 40 to 60 per cent of what it was before the pandemic.
Reduced seating capacity, of course, means less business: 88 per cent of respondents said they were doing only 60 per cent of the business they did during the year-earlier period — or less.
Just over eight per cent of respondents said their establishments are temporarily closed — and the main reason is seating capacity too low to allow profitability.
Whether an establishment is small, medium-sized or large, being closed for three months was bad for business and the concern is that a recovery could be slow, the ARQ said in a statement accompanying the July 9 release of the survey. The online survey was conducted June 30 to July 5; about 10 per cent of ARQ members responded.
Despite concerns, 46 per cent of respondents say they look to the future with confidence. Twenty-nine per cent said they are “not at all confident.” The rest fall somewhere in-between.
Not surprisingly, 57 per cent of survey respondents said they had difficulty recruiting personnel as they prepared to reopen, mainly because people preferred to continue to receive the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit payment of $500 per week than to work.
Ten per cent of respondents said the reluctance of employees to return to work was linked to the governmentmandated obligation to wear personal protective equipment, which for servers means a mask and a visor or goggles. Forty-seven per cent of survey respondents said these measures should be relaxed. Visors alone would be more comfortable for servers, said Dominique Tremblay, the ARQ’s communications officer.