And people were coming less anyway, so it’s hard to keep your hours at what they were when financially it doesn’t make sense to do so.” “If you change your business hours too often, people start to second-guess coming to you. “Customers thrive on consistency,” Rashwan points out. Many restaurants have attempted to be flexible by staying open for takeout and delivery during past lockdowns, but in doing so many have had to let staff go or change their hours to adapt to a new business model. You always feel a sense of uneasiness that there are more lockdowns coming.”

“Obviously, having your business being told that you have to close your doors to in-person dining, which makes up a huge portion of your sales-which we’ve had to do three times now-that just takes a financial toll,” says Rashwan. The challenges of trying to run a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic is one of the main reasons Rashwan decided to put the restaurant up for sale. Shereen Rashwan opened Bistro 290 in Niverville in March 2020, but after a year and a half of operation through tumultuous times, she made the difficult decision to close the business on October 30. Restaurants in particular have had to pivot multiple times in order to stay open.Īnd unfortunately, some are forced to make the decision to close their businesses entirely. Service-based operations have dealt with public health restrictions and lockdowns that specifically target environments where staff has to have close contact with the public.

The hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic.

Another word for running of a business