Widely Shared Image of 40 Eateries That Are Closing Down Isn’t 100% Accurate But Still Close Enough

By
Shawn Ambrose
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One by one, businesses are crumbling beneath the weight of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the coronavirus keeping customers in their homes, sales for many businesses have plummeted and people have lost their jobs.

The food and beverage industry is one of the worst affected sectors during the outbreak, and many eateries have had to close down as a result.

40 Eateries Closing Down?

Recently, the Facebook page Singapore Breaking News Network shared a list of 40 eateries that had supposedly closed down because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Image: MS News
Image: MS News

Have so many restaurants really fallen to the coronavirus crisis? Well, yes and no.

Some Eateries Still Open

This may come as a shock to you, but not everything published on the internet is true or factually accurate.

Image: Tenor

According to MS News, some of the restaurants mentioned on the list are either still open or haven’t confirmed their permanent closure yet.

Image: Giphy

Here’s a list of those eateries:

  1. Boufe Boutique Cafe (still open)
  2. Coffee Break (still at Hong Lim and Amoy Street Food Centre)
  3. Five Bar (temporarily closed)
  4. Hashida Sushi (temporarily closed)
  5. Inspirit House (still open)
  6. Rookery (shop at Hong Leong open for takeaways starting 2 Jun)
  7. Jamie’s Italian (still open)
  8. Modesto’s (still open)
  9. Parallel (shop closed, home deliveries available)
  10. Peppercorn (restaurant lease ended)
  11. Salt Grill & Sky Bar (temporarily closed)
  12. Starker (temporarily closed)

This means that while the beloved Salt Grill & Sky Bar may reopen, there are still… *counts on fingers*… 28 restaurants that are indeed closed.

Image: Tenor

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, so there are probably many more eateries out there that have had to shutter due to financial difficulties during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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8,663 Businesses Closed In April

According to Mothership, a staggering  8,663 business entities closed in April 2020, 403 of which were in the F&B sector.

This number is reportedly the highest in years.

And things could get worse.

See, the government implemented certain measures to help dying businesses during the circuit breaker, like wage subsidies and temporarily freezing loan repayments.

But the circuit breaker has ended, which means several firms will have their wage subsidies cut from 75% to 25%.

And loan moratoriums have ended, so businesses will have to cough up some cash.

F&B Businesses Hit Hard

Singapore Management University’s professor of marketing Kapil Tuli told The New Paper that the F&B industry is already incredibly competitive even when the economy is doing well.

This is because the sector is high-cost, and filled with customers who are “variety-seeking in their eating patterns”.

Basically, eateries are at the mercy of our everchanging tastebuds.

No one likes eating the same thing every day.

And even when dine-ins are allowed again, the number of people eating out might be smaller because residents might have gotten more comfortable with home deliveries.

So, if F&B establishments do not have sufficient financial reserves to fall back on, they may not survive the coronavirus crisis.

All we can do is hope that the pandemic doesn’t drag on for too long, because it is destroying everything in its path.

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]