The end of the lockdown, which lasted a little over a week in the capital, did not restore the previous attendance at catering establishments. In the first week after the restrictions were lifted, traffic dropped by up to 45%, said one of the market players surveyed by Kommersant.
In particular, such figures were named by the managing partner of Ginza Project Moscow (Butler, Sixty, ChaCha, etc.) Maxim Polzikov. One of the reasons lies in reducing the expenses of Muscovites before the New Year holidays, the expert believes.
At Novikov Group establishments (Magadan, Syrovarnya, Farsh, etc.) traffic and revenue decreased two to three times, at RESTart Vasilchuk Brothers (Chaikhona, Ruski, Picnic), traffic dropped by an average of 30%, in the Rakovaya gastrobar network – by 15–20%, at the Tigrus holding (Osteria Mario, Bar BQ Cafe, Shvili) – by 5–20%, and Teremok lost 10%.
The owners of Chaikhona explain such results by the fact that Muscovites expected the restrictions to be extended after the November holidays. Also, the guests did not return to restaurants amid news from other regions, where the authorities banned eating without QR codes, adds Sergey Mironov, the ombudsman of the Moscow restaurant market. According to him, the Moscow media also warned about the possible introduction of QR codes for public catering from November 8.
The industry will restore its previous indicators within two weeks, predicts the co-owner of Teremka Mikhail Goncharov. The Piknik restaurant gives less optimistic forecasts – in December the turnover will also be lower due to the companies’ refusal to take part in New Year’s events.
Moscow restaurants were closed and worked only for delivery and takeaway with the introduction of non-working days from October 28 to November 7. The turnover of the ready-to-eat food delivery market in the first days of the lockdown grew by 41% compared to the previous four days, a representative of the CloudPayments service told Vedomosti. The number of transactions for the same period increased by 24%, and the average order receipt increased by 17% to RUB 2,050.
In the early days of the lockdown, Moscow residents began to actively settle in hotels where there are no such strict restrictions on the operation of catering points.
For example, about a third of the guests of the five-star Movenpick Moscow Taganskaya hotel are residents of the capital, a representative of the Assor hotel chain (which manages the hotel) told Vedomosti.
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