THE RESTAURANTS OF RUSSIA PRESENTED THEIR OWN ANTI-BANKRUPTCY PLAN

The Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers (FR & H), having disagreed with the rules for withdrawing the catering enterprises from the total quarantine, presented its own plan. As early as on May 21, the relevant messages were sent to the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumers Protection as well as to the relevant ministries and the public representatives.

The chances that the ministries of economic development, industry and trade or the representatives of the supervisory authority will be responsive to the “petition” of the FR & H, the experts evaluate as extremely low. The restaurateurs themselves call the recommendations of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare, proposed more than a month ago “a shot in the head”.

In contrast to the four-stage plan proposed earlier, the initiative of the FR & H has only three stages.

At the first stage, the work of catering establishments is supposed to be exclusively in the regime of delivery of the products to the customers by reservation and provide the take-away service.

At the second stage, if there is a steady downward trend in the incidence of diseases in the country and in the region where the enterprise is located, the verandas and summer cafes will be open with a distance of 1 meter between the tables. It is also proposed to allow carry family holidays of no more than 20 people, placing them in the separate rooms.

The third stage, which the restaurateurs do not dare to call “regular”, involves a transitional regime, in which all the enterprises will be able to work freely and even hold events of up to 100 people, subject to the regulatory hygiene requirements.

The representatives of the federation clarified that the security measures, associated with antiseptic treatment and wet cleaning, ventilation and disinfection of the premises that were carried out earlier, would be further carried out by the entrepreneurs.

The restaurateurs consider opening the restaurants for 20 people, as it was suggested by the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumers Protection, pointless because of the low profitability.

The main criticism of the recommendations of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumers Protection was received precisely because they did not take the specific characteristics of the business into account. The representatives of the FR & H believe that if the plan, proposed on May 21 is not accepted, only large fast-food chains will be able to stay afloat in Russia, while the rest of the market participants will be forced to close or go bankrupt.

In the meantime, the restaurateurs, having lost their customers, are trying to draw attention to the problem using all possible methods. In particular, the workers of bars and cafes began to actively join the flash mob, which takes place in the social networks under the #naked restaurants hashtag.