Shopping Centers Russia Август 2021 Август 2021 | Page 60

THE RISE OF THE PHOENIX 

Восстание из пепла

Food courts on a diet

The industry most affected by the pandemic is food service. It was restaurants and food courts that, for very controversial reasons, were considered the main sources of the spread of the virus, which was reflected in various restrictions: from reduced hours of work to complete closure. The inconsistency of the regional authorities in the introduction of quarantine measures, experts believe, endangered not only the business of restaurateurs, but also the revenue of traditional tenants of shopping centers, which every year more and more depend on the traffic of the food court.

Food service is responsible for everything

Back in November last year, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that, according to the department's estimates, up to 20% of all cafes and restaurants in Russia were closed due to the restrictions imposed. Since the beginning of 2021, an unenviable fate has befallen another 8% of establishments. First of all, the crisis hit the capital: the sudden transfer of food service to the admission of visitors only by QR codes, designed to stimulate vaccination, virtually left restaurateurs without clients and closed food courts in shopping centers. The decision of the mayor's office was met with such massive discontent from business that it was revised less than a month later. However, in Moscow during this time, more than one and a half hundred cafes and restaurants managed to completely close.

What awaits the food segment in shopping centers