by Anil Malla
To answer this question couple of restaurant and café owners from Viman Nagar were been interviewed about their business status during pandemic and post-pandemic.
Hopscotch Café
Hopscotch café located at Shraddha Terrace, Shop no 4, Viman Nagar is owned by Pratik Dhotre. Pratik started his café business just a month before the pandemic in February 2020. Pratik said that when an unplanned lockdown was announced by the central government it was a very stressful situation for small businessmen like him because they have to take care of the rent and salaries of their employees. He further mentioned that they were not well-informed about the duration of the pandemic and it was creating a financial burden.
After the first wave, Pratik thought that now they might get a satisfactory number of customers but people were still afraid to step out of the house due to coronavirus. During the second wave, the Hopscotch Café was following all covid-19 protocols and maintaining hygiene so that more people would visit their café. They switched to online platforms like Zomato and Swiggy during the second lockdown which helped them to a certain extent.
Pratik added that the inflation of food grains/products and edible oil was also a reason for business loss. At the end of the interview, he said that “even though I was facing financial loss still I didn’t fire anyone or reduced salaries because employees are the backbone of our café.”
Mr. Hakka
Pradeep Patil is a Chef and Co-Owner of Mr. Hakka Restaurant located near CCD, opposite International skating ring, Shraddha Terrace. This restaurant is his 2nd business which he started in late 2021. His previous restaurant was closed due to the covid-19 pandemic which came with unplanned lockdowns. During the 2nd wave of the pandemic, he was working at other restaurants as a chef after closing his own catering business.
Pradeep said that “the pandemic affected food and tourism industry the most”. The night curfews were not helpful either because most of the customers dine during the evening he said. When asked about switching towards online platforms like Swiggy and Zomato he replied even that didn’t help him because there is a lot of competition online and it takes their location advantage since their restaurant is near colleges, IT offices, and hostels.
“During the 1st wave we were not able to give salaries due to migration and at the time of the second wave we could only afford 50% of the staff, whom we gave only 70% of their salary,” Pradeep said. When asked about the present status of his restaurant he said that still there are fewer customers due to the surge of omicron (a new variant of covid-19) and the restrictions which followed this variant leading to the 3rd wave of covid-19.
Seven Sisters Momos
Rohit Sashanker owns a dumpling restaurant named Seven Sisters Momos which is located at Clover Park Viman Nagar Road. He’s running this restaurant for almost a decade. “Due to the pandemic for the first time we saw 50% fewer customers and 50% reduction in staff,” Rohit said.
The lockdown affected his business drastically but his business wasn’t affected much by the night curfews due to online deliveries from platforms like Zomato and Swiggy. Rohit’s biggest concern during the pandemic was his employees since many of them work with him temporarily and then quit. He said that getting an employee is easy but getting a permanent staff member who will work for a longer-term that’s difficult. At the end of the interview, he pointed out that the inflation of LPG gas cylinders and edible oil was a major reason to worry for restaurant owners like him.
In conclusion, all of the owners indicated that they are not able to earn the same amount of revenue as they used to do before the pandemic in 2019. Even though curbing restrictions have made things better compared to the lockdown period still the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on their savings leading to loss of employees, less income for staff, debts, rental issues, mental health, etc.
About the Author:
Anil Malla is a mass communication student at Vishwakarma University. He can be reached at [email protected]