Canadian media: Under the epidemic, many Chinese restaurants in Metro Vancouver have temporarily closed their operations to reduce losses

Source: China Overseas Chinese Network

According to Canada's "Sing Tao Daily" reported that the Taiwanese restaurant "Pearl Pavilion", which has been open for more than 20 years in Greater Vancouver, Canada, recently announced that it would close its business due to "serious shortage of manpower", although the statement said it was "temporarily saying goodbye", but the person in charge of the restaurant said that it had sold two stores, and it was not yet known when it would reopen. Several other Cantonese restaurants, including Harbour Seafood Restaurant, Shengyi Restaurant and Guangdong Huating Seafood Restaurant, are also temporarily closed. Restaurant operators said that there are still many restaurants that have closed due to the epidemic, some of which are temporarily closed to reduce losses, and some of which may be permanently closed.

Pearl Pavilion, which opened in 1997, posted a statement on social media on January 15, saying: "Dear Pearl Pavilion customers, Pearl Pavilion is understaffed due to the epidemic, and our Benabee store will be the last day to serve you today. Richmond stores will also close on January 29. The statement also said that it is only to say goodbye to everyone for the time being, and hopes that in the near future, it will come back to continue to serve everyone.

Mr. Wu, the person in charge of the restaurant, said in an interview with the "Sing Tao Daily" reporter on the 16th that the decision to close the store was mainly due to the lack of manpower in the restaurant, and there were employees in the front of the Prelude Wen store who were infected with new crown pneumonia in the past two weeks, and the restaurant was also closed for 10 days. "It's a mess under the pandemic." "Now both shops have been sold," he said. When asked how the business of the store is, Mr. Wu said that it has always been relatively stable, and if it can be reopened in the future, he will have to find another address.

The reporter also saw information on the Internet that there was a sale of Richmond Pearl Pavilion, with a bid price of 279,000 yuan, the listing date was January 12, and the status was displayed as "Sold". The restaurant is also shown online for a basic monthly rent of $4,800, plus a surcharge of $1,000.

However, Xie Baiqiang, secretary general of the Canadian Restaurant Association and the British Columbia Restaurant Proprietor Chamber of Commerce, pointed out that the problem facing most restaurants now is that there is no business, not a shortage of manpower. He said that many restaurants are now "opening the door to lose labor, do not open the door to lose rent", many originally popular restaurants are now opening the door after "shooting black flies", and even "eating white fruit", the business is only 20% or 30% of the previous, even no guests all night, employees "big eyes and small eyes", and finally can only close the door early to finish work.

He said that many restaurants cut manpower in order to save costs, resulting in many workers in the catering industry receiving unemployed benefits or changing careers. "A lot of people call and ask if I have a job, and I'm sure if there's a restaurant hiring there's going to be a lot of people applying." He said that many restaurants, which used to have only one day off a week, have been changed to four days and three days off, thereby reducing labor costs.

Other restaurants have had to close temporarily, on Main St. in Vancouver. The Harbour Seafood Restaurant is one of them. The restaurant's person in charge, Mr. Zhang, said it would be temporarily closed until January 22, when the weather and city conditions would be reviewed to decide whether to reopen. He said that due to the worsening of the epidemic and the impact of ice and snow weather some time ago, the number of guests has decreased significantly.

"There are two or three tables of guests in the morning, no one at night, no takeaway." Mr. Zhang said: "According to the current manpower configuration of the restaurant, opening the door means a loss of two or three thousand yuan a day, and not opening the door is only a loss of five or six hundred yuan." ”

He pointed out that the guests of the restaurant are mainly old overseas Chinese in the Wendong area, due to their old age, coupled with bad weather, they are inconvenient to go out, coupled with the greater threat of the epidemic to the elderly, the recent Omicron (Omicron) rampant, so that many elderly dare not go out.

Mr. Zhang also said that at the beginning of the epidemic, the government had some subsidies for restaurants, and they could barely maintain their operations, but now the subsidies are gone, making many restaurants lose a lot of money every month and it is difficult to support.

Xie Baiqiang also said that Richmond Shengyi Restaurant and Guangdong Huating Seafood Restaurant have also announced temporary rest. In addition, he also heard that some restaurants had been put on sale and decided to close them permanently. "There are also some restaurants that call me and say they don't want to do it, and I tell them to hold on a little longer, once these restaurants are closed, it will be difficult to recover in the future."

Xie Baiqiang called on the provincial government to lend a helping hand to support these small businesses to tide over the difficulties.

He said: "I hope that the provincial government can issue electronic vouchers to the public, in fact, this operation is very simple, the provincial government has all the contact information of the vaccinated citizens, and the unvaccinated people can not enter the restaurant to eat, as long as the vaccinated people are issued restaurant vouchers, encourage everyone to enter the restaurant to consume, I believe it will be helpful to the business of the enterprise." (Wang Xuewen)