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What “Opening Up America Again” could mean for us?
The White House released an “Opening Up America Again” plan with specific guidance for safe reopening in three phases based on the gating criteria, defined as both symptoms and cases showing a downward trajectory, along with hospital and testing programs meeting all demands. The first phase is for states and regions that satisfy the gating criteria. The second phase is for states with no evidence of a rebound, and satisfy the gating criteria a second time. The third phase is for states with no evidence of rebound, and satisfy the gating criteria a third time.
Why implementing “Social Distancing” matters:
I am not a science professional who is able to analyze the data and ensure you that our state can safely open; neither do I possess information to confirm our state meets the gating criteria. However, I would like to address the importance of social distancing so we can have enough awareness to prepare once our environment reopens.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unveiled its best practices for food stores and restaurants. The National Restaurant Association (NRA) also posted its reopening guidance for restaurants ready to reopen.
Under the food safety section of both the NRA and FDA’s guidelines, “social distancing and protective equipment” is listed among the top recommendations.
Challenges for current business owners
1. Restaurants say reopening only half-full of diners will not work financially.
“We have the number of seats we have in the restaurant because that’s what we need to be financially solvent. ... (Reopening with reduced capacity) feels like it’s something that’s more symbolic than useful.” A North Carolina restaurant owner mentioned this dilemma. –The News & Observer .
“If you talk to restaurants across the globe, the language might change, but the math is the same. Restaurants and bars need volume and traffic to make them work.” — CNN Business.
2. Restaurants have difficulty restocking their inventory as all food produce carries expiration dates.
“If I had a jewelry shop, my inventory is never going go bad—I can turn the lights back on and everything is going to be fine.” A restaurant owner reported to the Washington Post.
A question for myself:
How can we change the layout to help these restaurants?
First, we need to talk about the operational type of each restaurant.
Normally the serving hours of fine dining and casual dining restaurants are 11:30 am- 3 pm and 5 pm-9 pm. Fine dining is especially focused on the customer experience and have a complete reservation system with a host(ess) stand to escort guests to their seats. Casual dining restaurants (such as those mom and pop restaurant in your neighborhood) let guests walk in and sit down spontaneously.
Fast-casual restaurants are open the whole day from as early as 7 am to as late as 10 pm. Examples of those places are Panera Bread, Cosi, or Potbelly etc. Their guests walk in at any time, sit spontaneously, and tend to stay in the dining area for a longer period. Fast-casual restaurants operate with limited or self-service format, do not have drive-throughs but have a complete system for order pick up.
My goal is to help small business to reach their highest capacity and maintain the social distancing at the same time. Based on the following guideline
“Consider a reservations-only business model or call-ahead seating to better space diners.”
“Maintain 6 feet social distancing.”
“50% of maximum seating occupancy.”
I came to the assumption that if restaurants divided dinner admittance times and restricted their turnover time. It is possible to reach 70% or more of their original serving capacity without having to invest much to change their original layout.
Here is the example for casual dining.
Step 1. Find a far corner seat and draw 6 ft dia circle as the starting point and start color coded restaurant’s tables.
Step 2. Place 6 ft clear zone doormats at the entrances. Set a host stand with sanitizing supplies and take the temperature of each guest.
Step 3. Set an extended sneeze guard above the partitions if the restaurant has booth furniture. Set the bar area as an order pickup or mini-grocer location. (As individual guests are unlikely using restaurants during or maybe prohibited during this unprecedented time.)
The illustration above shows the total serving seats of this restaurant is 79 altogether.
Before the pandemic, the restaurant’s capacity scenario was: 79 x 2.5 (assuming seats turnover rate) =198 total serving guests. (In this scenario, assuming 90 minutes per seat turnover, 5–10 minutes table cleanup/prep time, 2–3 turns per table per night.)
With social distancing and reservation systems, total 95 guests could be potentially served per evening. This would be 48% of the original capacity.
Setting up bar as mini grocer or online pickup area could help additional revenue to make up the capacity lost in following 6 feet guideline.
If restaurant shorten each dinner admitted period to 45 mins, it will result in total 125 guests could be potentially served per evening. This would be 63% of original capacity. But the question is how to balance guests during each period.
Original image excerpt from Toast.com. Modified Illustration is done by the author
Here is an example for fast-casual restaurant.
Step 1. Find a far corner seat and color code each restaurant table.
Step 2. Place 6 ft clear zone doormats at the entrances. Set an order pickup stand with sanitizing supplies and take the temperature of all guests close to the entrance.
Step 3. Set an extended sneeze guard above the partitions if the restaurant has booth furniture.
An additional order pickup zone can help add to the restaurant’s revenue.
Fast-casual seating is often more scattered with more fluid traffic path, therefore it is important to have clear color coded table or place-mat for guests to identify the seating location.
Originally estimate 5-10 pm (5 hours) for 3 turns (average 1 hour 40 min per seat turnover) After shorten seat turnover time to be 1 hour per seat, each time slot suppose to get full occupancy per colored table. That will result in 50% of original planned revenue. However the additional online pickup zone might help pickup the seat loss due to social distancing.
Original image excerpt from Toast.com. Modified Illustration is done by the author
Side Notes: Although people might question removing or blocking more seats in order to maintain the 6 feet clear distance, I would recommend not removing any furniture. Because often the spacing among the original furniture has already been embedded in the 6 feet module. Keeping the existing furniture but utilizing a color coded system (such as various color table cloth, plate mats) could function as a block and minimize costly and unnecessary changes of the layout.
Last updated on 5/17/2020.