The new normal includes a shift toward more eating at home, which means cooking, groceries, takeaway, catering and delivery. This continues to affect the restaurant industry where existing owners are finding creative solutions to survive and adapt. Strategic discounts, cash-only and takeaway cocktails are thought to incentivise the now thrifty diners judicious about their ongoing but optional expenditures.

Restaurants striving to survive this time have quickly pivoted their services to offer comfort food and home cooking substitutes to maintain popularity and sustain their business. Discounted takeaways are appreciated for the current economic environment while expensive restaurants with high prices are not.

Restaurant owners must be mindful that this storm shall too pass and going back to normal business at some point means retraction of the current incentives that are offered to sustain their operation. Thinking ahead of what will next come while creating short term value will help avoid devaluing current businesses as well as retaining brand image through this time.

New ventures would do well to completely rethink their approach and consider innovating the traditional restaurant business model through pivots such as offering flat rates for bulk meals or delivery of hybrid meal kits (restaurant chef-prepared dish finished off at home).

As the trend toward remote work from home consolidates over the long run, many of these new pivots in the restaurant landscape could become a permanent feature of the restaurant landscape, creating new demands and sectors. Thinking through the broader term right now will help navigate this current landscape.