The Beverage Standards Association brings you Peter’s Monday 17th May 2021 Weekly Briefing every Tuesday morning.
Monday, 17th May Weekly Briefing
Contactless ordering and payment
Contactless ordering and payment have leapt out of their covid-induced requirement and now seem set for an ongoing, essential role. Sanitiser stations, sanitiser cloths at the table, single use menus, online menus, menus wiped down after each use, surface cleaning every 15 minutes. There was veritable sanitation boom. And this is undeniably a good thing for the future too. But, we Brits, being a scruffy nation, will, I suspect, not keep up this good work.
Can the good work continue?
While screens were being used between tables and at payment areas, efforts were in hand to move away from clear plastic to features that removed the starkness of plexiglass. This is a solution that, after restaurants had incurred the costs, has gone nowhere. Customers directed via one-way systems to minimise interaction will disappear before too long. For now, front of house distancing rules still in place will, on current plans, cease in June together with limits on the numbers of guests per table
Team growth or team stagnation
Definitely gone, though, is checking temperatures of staff and guests, not that it was ever much of a feature. Meanwhile, this time a year ago, many companies were proposing smaller back of house teams to ease social interaction (and therefore slow the spread of covid). Smaller teams are now likely to be a necessity as kitchen staff become more difficult to find. Another pressure on team size is uncertainty over medium-term demand – and that is likely to remain a feature over the next few months. One effect of smaller teams is the need for smaller menus, and this also appears to be a theme, for now at least.
Thank you for reading part of the Monday 17th May 2021 Weekly Briefing and full edition can be found at Weekly Briefing Report.
