Local businesses learn many a lesson from intense lockdown

For restaurants, the shift towards delivery-focused services was reinforced over the last three weeks. “Customers’ feedback was they prefer direct delivery to work through an app. Noting this, we had one employee handle direct delivery. Customers appreciate transparency at this time the best. So we focussed more on that. We are now thinking of ways to make the parcels more appealing to our customers, as this is the short-term future,” said Nitesh Surana, founder of Flower Drum restaurant. 

Although the timings of various businesses have been extended now, some have decided to work for only part of that time for safety concerns. 

“It takes us 30-45 minutes to wrap up for the day. If my employees leave later, they are at risk of being apprehended by the police. There is no match between closing time and time required for staff to travel back,” said Bharat Chowdry, owner of a supermarket in Anna Nagar, who downs shutters an hour before the government-issued closing time. 

“Customers, however, are very resistant and often fail to understand my position,” he added. 

Logistics is also an issue for local manufacturing companies, which have opened across the city. 

One employee at a local textile manufacturing business said, “Based on the unpredictability of the situation, we learned to give ourselves more elbow room. If an order would typically take two days to complete, we say it would take five, due to travel issues and reduced timings. This has decreased our output, but something is better than nothing.”