Metro Vancouver restaurants take hit as customers worry about coronavirus
Credit to Author: Joanne Lee-Young| Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2020 01:50:50 +0000
Hao Zheng Wen is the owner of Hao’s Lamb Restaurant, a popular Chinese restaurant that has been around for years in Richmond. It specializes in spicy, tender lamb dishes, and there was often a lineup to get a table.
But starting around the second day of the Lunar New Year on Jan. 26, Hao says there was a shift as customers who had booked some of the larger tables started getting more information about the coronavirus outbreak through Chinese-language social media and cancelled their reservations.
On a recent weekday at lunch time in the restaurant with seating for 90, traffic had dwindled completely and there were only three or four tables with patrons.
“You still get people who come together if they are just two or three people, or by themselves, but no one is coming for (these),” said Hao, patting one of the round tables for eight to 10 people.
For groups with individuals who are observing suggested periods of self-quarantine because they have recently been to China, each person is “counting down a different number of days,” he explained.
On Wednesday, China announced that the number of coronavirus cases has jumped to more than 60,000, but there are only four known cases in B.C., a number that hasn’t changed in several days.
Hao estimates business has plummeted by as much as 60 to 70 per cent. He usually keeps eight cooks and four or five servers up front. Now, “we are rotating” and using just three cooks and two servers.
His staff include students and “some newer immigrants and older immigrants” from different parts of China, “the northeast, Xian, Shanghai. They have family and friends, neighbours who are dealing with being worried about coronavirus. They are anxious. I’ve been telling them, ‘Stop a moment, give your relatives a call.’”
He knows they have children and older relatives here who “they are responsible for shouldering. They have to pay rent and mortgages.”
Last week, in hopes of drumming up a bit of activity and keeping spirits buoyed, he posted his menu to his WeChat circle, offering free delivery.
“We have never done this before and I never really considered reaching out to use (some of the popular, local Chinese-language food delivery services such as) Fantuan because we didn’t need to.”
Now, he is taking larger orders, driving himself, with 10 or so dishes from Richmond to the West Side in Vancouver or White Rock, but also ferrying orders as small as one bowl of noodles to a customer closer by.
Fears over the spread of the coronavirus have hit businesses, but the impact hasn’t been even, according to David Chung, president of the B.C. Asian Restaurant Cafe Owners Association and owner of Jade Seafood Restaurant in Richmond.
“At the bigger restaurants that cater to big parties, association dinners, ones with 40 to 50 tables, those have been hardest hit,” said Chung, adding that some have had reservations cancelled as far away as May.
At his establishment, business is down by about a third and “we are still losing money,” but the drop is less than at other Chinese restaurants.
“Some have customers who are connected with (the impact of the coronavirus) every day, through their friends and relatives (in China).”
“There’s information all the time,” said Hao, pointing at his phone and messages back and forth with a friend from high school to donate disinfectant.
Meanwhile, businesses such as Natureway Farm Market, an independent grocery outlet in East Vancouver, have seen a sharp uptick in business during the past two weeks. It offers quick pick-up or delivery of groceries and produce across the Lower Mainland.
“I don’t know exactly how much (busier it has been). There are more and more orders, and larger quantities. About a 50-per-cent increase (in sales). I haven’t had time to figure out exactly. Everyone is working and tired,” said owner Felix Ye.