AFP, published on Sunday February 23, 2020 at 05h59
The only lunch consumed at Cindy’s Café in Beijing is that of a idle waitress … Panicked by the coronavirus epidemic, the Chinese, holed up at home, desert the restaurants and feed themselves thanks to an army of home deliverers.
At Cindy’s, a restaurant in a Beijing shopping center, the guests are extremely rare, the cash receipts almost zero, and only the deliveries work a little, sighs the boss Cai Yaoyang.
And again: “We could earn up to 1,000 yuan a day (131 euros) with deliveries. Now it’s more like 200 to 300 yuan. The impact is huge,” he laments. Nearby, the “Bellagio Café” reports recipes six times lower than usual.
Subject to local containment measures or panicked by the risk of contagion, many Chinese have been hushed up at home for a month.
For the Cindy’s chain (ten restaurants in China), losses could amount to hundreds of thousands of euros, due to rents and lost provisions, explains Mr. Cai. Some employees may end up on leave without pay.
A very heavy blow for the restaurant sector (610 billion euros in revenue in 2019) and which could jeopardize certain companies.
Laoxiangji, a chain of 800 restaurants, has already suffered at least 66 million euros in losses, assured its president Shu Congxuan in a video broadcast by the fast food group.
– “Heroes” –
For food, the Chinese place an order to have it delivered to their homes, on mobile applications whose frequentation explodes.
In the almost deserted streets, the electric two-wheelers of the deliverers are omnipresent, enough to make them in the public media of the “heroes” who maintain the supply of the households.
But for these tireless couriers, the protocols are complicated: in Shanghai, Gao Yuchao, 30, who works for the Ele.me platform (“Are you hungry?”), Must wear two masks and take his temperature in restaurants where he collects meals, as well as at destination.
Each order is accompanied by a card showing the temperature of the people who cooked, packed and delivered each dish.
To defuse consumer distrust, Ele.me and Meituan, two giant meal delivery platforms, even offer “contactless deliveries”. The American chains McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks followed suit.
The principle: the goods are deposited at the entrance of the residence and the courier leaves before the customer collects his order … to avoid contamination.
“It’s more hygienic (…) It is understandable that some people have the phobia of couriers,” said Gao to AFP. “I have to go out to make a living.”
Hearing the deliveryman arrive, some worried customers sometimes shout at him to drop off his package and quickly leave, says the young man.
– Fresh vegetables-
In addition to meals, households have their groceries delivered, from groceries to hygiene products.
Online retail giant JD.com saw its sales of fresh produce jump 215% during the Chinese New Year holiday, when the crisis erupted: rice and dairy products are in high demand, disinfectants too.
Meituan Grocery (daily grocery delivery) saw its daily sales in Beijing triple at peak holidays, with flourishing purchases of flour and cooking oil.
In search of support, JD.com announced in mid-February that it wanted to recruit 20,000 people as handlers, couriers or drivers … a boon for restaurant employees who are technically unemployed.
Some establishments also see it as a lifesaver: in the restaurants of the Yunhaiyao chain (a hundred addresses), the tables are loaded with fresh vegetables ready to be delivered as is or already cut, instead of the prepared dishes usually found in menu.
However, “our income represents only 10% of what we normally earn,” said Li Jianying, a manager overseeing 10 Yunhaiyao restaurants. Asphyxiated by the charges, the chain took out a loan of 10 million yuan … from the giant Meituan.
Li said “several hundred employees” have signed temporary contracts with online platforms and supermarkets to ensure deliveries.
llc-bys / dma-Ith / jug / ehl / bar / ybl
–
