FAISALABAD: The province-wide lockdown may have created troubles for smallshopkeepers and traders, but food outlets are doing roaring business through their takeaway service.

Several restaurants in the district would find it difficult to survive the lockdown as their profit margins were already low due to the hike in prices prior to the spread of the virus. Monetary resources of majority of the small and traditional hotels set up in small areas were also low.

Akram Asif, a rider with a food delivery service, said the lockdown had resulted in a major boost to the takeaway service and most traditional food outlets where people would choose to dine in were closed these days. He said the recent decision to close shops after 8pm proved to be a blessing for the restaurants offering takeaway service.

“I am getting a good tip from people who were earlier reluctant to give us even Rs20 for an order. Now, the tipping behaviour of people is changing and some of the customers even asked me about the availability of food at my home,” he added.

Asif said a number of people were ordering rice, pulses and vegetables as they were cheap as compared to chicken, beef and mutton. He said food delivery riders were not facing any problems from police while on the road.

Another rider, Noman, said he was delivering orders for around five hours at night. People were placing orders of all sorts of food items, from traditional to fast food, he added.

He said that for the last 10 days he had received about Rs12,000 as tip and been serving people as a duty, as people could not get food at night themselves. He said the eating habits of people had changed in Faisalabad for a couple of years and they liked having fast food for dinner, and even late night as it happened in Lahore.

He said all riders had been exercising precautionary measures to avoid the coronavirus and their company had also briefed them about these measures. He also said policemen were not disturbing the riders while they stood outside their restaurants waiting for orders.

“I had to hand over someone else’s order to three policemen, who said they were on duty and could not go home. The policemen paid him the total amount of that order,” Noman narrated.

Jabbar Ahmed, who runs a small restaurant in Jinnah Colony, said the situation of such traditional food outlets would render a number of people jobless in the days to come andfarmers, waiters, cooks and bakers would face a tough time.

He said the government had announced a bailout package for exporters, but nothing for small traders, shopkeepers and people like him. “I have to send my employees home and ask them to find other jobs as I don’t know if I will be in a position to run my hotel again or not,” he lamented.

“I was earning a profit of Rs4,000 to Rs5,000 daily. Now, I am really concerned about meeting my expenses as I have to give some money to my employees who have left for their homes,” he added.

He said only the big food producers would survive if the government did not extend any help to small businesses.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2020