Photo by Layal Srour
After four months of being in quarantine with nowhere to go, besides our couches and watching television, stores have finally begun to open their doors again. However, just because we are finally allowed to go out again, that does not mean there are no restrictions in place.
On Wednesday, July 15, 2020, Governor Tom Wolf has placed strict restrictions on restaurants, grocery stores, malls, etc. These restrictions include, “The new orders include reducing restaurants’ indoor dining capacity to 25%, limiting on-premises alcohol consumption to meals only, limiting indoor gatherings to 25 people, and implementing more telework when possible.” Following these restrictions also requires people to wear their masks at all times while they are in public and to stay six feet apart from one another.
The King of Prussia mall, and any mall that is open for shoppers, are operating in a way that limits the number of shoppers that go into the store at once. Due to these restrictions, it results in longer wait times and longer lines of customers waiting outside the store to enter. For example, stores such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton had long lines that wrapped around the outside of the store.
Photo by Layal Srour.
However, just because businesses and retail stores are open, it does not mean prices stayed the same. Some stores have their clothes on sale to get rid of a large number of inventory items before they put out new items for the season, while other stores raised their prices, making people complain due to the outrageous price gouging.
As for restaurants, most places operated on a take-out and delivery system during the quarantine. Fortunately, many restaurants have begun to open for outdoor seating and limited indoor seating. Since these restaurants opened, it has been a new and different experience for the customers, as well as the employees.
I have experienced these changes first hand because I have been working as a server at IHOP for a few years now and it is taking a bit of getting used to with the new rules in place.
At IHOP we are open for outdoor dining and take-out services with limited two-page menu options and increased prices, as opposed to the full six or eight-page menu. Upon entering the store, all employees must get their temperature taken to ensure they are safe to work around the customers and coworkers. Second, employees are not allowed to work if they do not have their masks with them. A regular work day prior to the pandemic consisted of approximately 15 employees, which included the manager, servers, cooks and busboys. Now that we are working in a pandemic, there are about half the number of employees.
For the take-out and delivery services, we cannot allow any customers in the store unless they have a mask on and only one to two customers are allowed in the lobby area at once to pick up their meal. Working outdoors, especially during this summer heat while wearing the masks gets irritating for us because it is harder for the customers to hear us and it gets exhausting going from inside to get the drinks and food to bring it outside and come back.
The outdoor seating consists of a large 20 by 30 tent that includes 15 tables, giving us an occupancy of 45-50 customers.
Photo by Layal Srour
The menus we place on the tables are disposable menus that are used as placemats that get thrown out after the customers leave the table. The condiments that we place on the tables, such as the ketchup, salt, pepper, syrups, etc. come in small to-go packages that we put in to-go drink carriers. Any condiments that are not used by the customers still get thrown away, so we try to limit the number of condiments unless they ask for more.
Any drinks that we serve are poured in glass cups with lids on it and we provide straws so they don’t drink directly from the cup. As for customers that order coffee, we give them the sugar in sugar caddies, the creamers on the side and we place the mugs and pot on the table. When they leave, we bring in the coffee pots and sugar caddies and clean them with towels and disinfectant sprays. We also wipe down the tables and chairs with the disinfectant sprays and towels.
Finally, if the customer pays with a credit card, we have them sign the credit card slip on a clipboard with a pen attached so they do not use our personal pens, but we sanitize the ones on the clipboard.
Lastly, all employees handling the food for both takeout and outdoor services must be sanitizing their hands throughout the day and must sanitize the work space to keep a clean work area, as well as customers seeing the workspace when they enter to use the restroom and pick up their food.
Altogether, tips have been decent which is good since we make most of our money through tips as servers. Also, because of the nice weather on most days, it is nice to be outside and communicating with other people after having been stuck inside for months on end.
