Approximately 20% of the restaurants , coffee shops , and cafes located in the Moscow City towers remain closed, despite the lifting of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, the business center's skyscrapers house approximately 170 food and beverage outlets of various types.
But even those establishments that have managed to reopen are experiencing a severe shortage of customers due to a sharp decline in traffic. For example, in a number of multifunctional complexes, including food courts, traffic is several times lower than before the outbreak. This is due to many companies deciding not to bring all employees back to work, instead keeping some of them working remotely or introducing shift work.
The observed decline in traffic, coupled with the increased costs of complying with epidemiological requirements, coupled with the typical high rents in the City, means that many food service establishments are operating at break-even point, with daily revenue at best 40-50% of previous levels. Restaurants with verandas are somewhat better off, but due to the nature of high-rise development in the area, there are only a few such projects.
Some establishment owners have decided to try a new format for their food service establishments. One of them, for example, developed a strategy based on the motto "grab and run." The new chain of cafes will operate using the "Lunch Box" format, meaning customers will download a special app to their smartphones, through which they can order and immediately pay for their breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Food will be prepared in the cafe and delivered to customers through separate boxes located behind the kitchen wall. These boxes will be opened by a command sent from a smartphone. This format offers benefits not only to the owner, as it eliminates the cost of paying waiters and cashiers, but also to customers, as it significantly saves time.
While several contactless food sales points are still operating in Moscow City, the overall number of seats in food service establishments has still been reduced by 30-50%.
