Greece’s cafes and restaurants are preparing to reopen for business on Monday after being closed down as part of COVID-19 restrictions, as they closed just over two months ago due to the coronavirus curfews, home quarantines and the strict preventive measures imposed by health authorities against the pandemic.
However, three in ten cafes or restaurants might not open on Monday, Nikos Nifoudis, of the Thessaloniki Catering Initiative told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) on Saturday.
Mr Nifoudis explained that only about 2,000 such businesses in the municipality of Thessaloniki are licensed to place tables and seats outdoors. On the other hand, he said, some of these are likely to continue to operate as take-aways while they observe how similar businesses will fare in coming days.
“The sector is very anxious to see how returning to business will play out,” Nifoudis stressed, “because no one can predict how confident customers are to return to cafes and restaurants, while the running costs of any such establishment remains high regardless of serving ten or fifty customers at any one time.”
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Another concern that perplexes owners in the broader catering sector is the reduced spending power many people might be facing as a result of the pandemic, he underlined.
Cafes and restaurants will open with some restrictions in place, including a distance of between 70 cm to 1.7 meters between seats and a maximum of six seated customers.
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