Second Covid-19 wave swamps eateries as fresh curbs hit biz, wage payouts

The main gate leading to The Camp Restaurant in Santacruz East, Mumbai, is closed at noon. This is unusual, given that it is lunch time and even parcel orders are difficult to take. “Please note down our numbers and call us,” Anil Singh, an attendant, says from behind the gate. “We are taking food orders on the phone. No customer is allowed in. The police just warned us.”

A police vehicle is stationed some distance away, warning non-essential retailers to shut shop; eateries are part of the drill. “Business is down to a trickle. These curbs are hurting us. I will watch how the situation evolves. If it doesn’t improve, I may have to pack my bags and leave the city,” he says.

Singh’s story is a familiar narrative that is playing out across restaurants in Mumbai and Thane. The Maharashtra government imposed new curbs beginning this week to contain the spread of the coronavirus, shutting down non-essential retail outlets, putting in place a stringent night curfew beginning 8 pm, and announcing a complete lockdown on weekends. The restrictions will be in place till the end of April.

While home delivery of food and essential items by online providers has been permitted 24x7, restaurants have not been given any relief yet. Restaurant bodies and associations have been protesting the new curbs since Monday, demanding a waiver of statutory fees and taxes.

“With the latest conditions laid down by the state government, restaurants will choose to not open at all for the month. With the work-from-home culture, earnings in the day are next to negligible and food delivery contributes to only 5 to 7 per cent of the total revenue of a restaurant. Approximately 70 to 80 per cent of a restaurant’s weekly turnover is generated through weekend business, and 80 per cent revenue is generated from dine-in customers,” said Pradeep Shetty, senior vice-president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI).

No business, therefore, will mean that salary and wage payouts will take a hit, and could lead to an exodus of migrant workers. At Bandra Terminus in Mumbai, the queues for train tickets are getting longer each day.

Tayyab Ali, who works at an eatery in Bandra, is looking to prepone his trip to Uttar Pradesh. “I was intending to head back to my home town next month. I will do so this month itself. There is anyway no work at the restaurant. What is the point of my staying here,” he says.

Rathnakar Bhat, the owner of a popular restaurant in the Dattawadi area of Kharegaon, Thane, puts it bluntly: “We are struggling to pay the salaries of our boys. They will leave if they do not get their wages. As such, inflationary pressures are high, crimping margins. And now these restrictions will mean that there is hardly any business for a month.”

Roughly 60 per cent of the restaurant market in India, pegged at Rs 4.25 trillion in size, remains unorganised, while 40 per cent is organised. Though store closures have been rampant in the unorganised market since the outbreak of the pandemic last March, organised players, too, are feeling the heat.

At the sprawling Kamala Mills Compound in Lower Parel, Mumbai, a hub for organised restaurants and eateries, the situation is clearly grim. Chaayos, the chai-café serving a variety of teas, has opted to completely switch to Swiggy and Zomato for deliveries.

“Earlier any sizable order in neighbouring offices or corporate houses was delivered by one of our staff members. That was employment for our people. Now, we are completely switching to Swiggy and Zomato,” said Akshay, the Chaayos attendant at the takeaway counter in Kamala Mills.

With all its chairs placed upside down in the dine-in area, it is evident that there have been no footfalls at the outlet since the new restrictions kicked in earlier this week.

“We are five of us at this outlet. By weekend it will be decided who all will continue to work here. So far, we’ve had no salary cuts. We don’t know how it is going to be like in the future,” Akshay says.

Ostaad, a casual dining and bar at Kamala Mills, has shut up shop. “The outlet was making about Rs 6,00,000 per day. But since the pandemic began last year, it hasn’t been making even Rs 6,00,000 a month. Now this second wave...There was no option but to shut it down,” says an old staffer on condition of anonymity.

Banana Leaf, another popular restaurant, has just 30 per cent staff left; the rest have moved on.

Vishal Toraskar, manager at Banana Leaf, says, “Our main business was dinner takeaways through the pandemic. But now with night curfew at 8 pm, our sales have been hit hard. We had revenue of about Rs 60,000 per day prior to these new restrictions. I don’t think we will make even Rs 7,000 per day now.”

At Thane’s Ram Maruti Road, chairs at Cream Chills ice-cream parlour have been neatly folded up.

“We don't have even 10 per cent of our normal walk-ins. Not many want to take parcels...It is tough,” the cashier says.

The desperation at nearby Mamledar Missal, a fast-food joint, is obvious. “Give as many items as possible to the customer,” the cashier instructs his attendants.

Prashant Corner, another fast-food joint, on Kalwa Kharegaon Road in Thane, barely has visitors. “We survive on dine-in services. People want to sit and have their meals. Takeaways put them off,” the proprietor says.