Half price food... if you sit in?

[hjtip10]

Is this true? You can't take away! Is the government trying to spread covid twice as fast this month? 🤦🏻‍♀️

We're taking advantage of it - as we'll be paying for it in taxes for years to come, so might as well. But you're right - it just means we're going out to eat Mon - Wed and picking pricier restaurants, rather than meaning we eat out more often.

We went out Monday night to a pub we hadn't been to for a long while and were somewhat surprised the staff weren't wearing masks, we were given the standard handout menus and they miscalculated the bill based on the discount and were very sniffy about correcting it. So shan't be going back there.

It is a weird scheme though, particularly now that the infection numbers have stopped dropping in England.

And I imagine weekends are no longer busy;

I've not seen a busy weekend for a long time. That's the problem!

We ate out last night and booked again elsewhere tonight. We didn't decide to book until 4pm. Seven local pubs/restaurants completely booked out! Did find somewhere eventually and that was the last table they had. So the scheme is clearly working as well as the government hoped. Meal last night had distanced tables, all the serving staff wearing visors, and a hand sanitiser on the way in/out.

So the scheme is clearly working as well as the government hoped.

It'll only help if it doesn't just pare back weekend footfall. Clearly Mon-Wed was chosen as being otherwise quieter times and it would have been aiming to make these busy too. The offer is really too good - a family of 4 waiting until Monday to go for a meal can save £40 which is too much to ignore.

For those hiding away, the pubs and restaurants are busy. A lot of people think it’s time to get back to some kind of normal. Sitting in every day isn’t much fun.

Great, so
1 if they are busy is this a good use of money
2 especially when schools are trying to do all sorts to get education to children in a pandemic with no extra funding
3 if they are busy then the priority should be on decreasing risks. providing more seats outside, encouraging eating there, perhaps in a short time frame, as there are significant risks attached to eating inside and
4 if people get infected through eating out/going to the pub etc quite apart from anything else, it could be really bad publicity and actually counterproductive for the businesses they want to help

I am a chef and our place has been really busy since saturday.The scheme seems to be bring the customers out.We do have a large garden though.In fact it was lovely to see so many faces after four months closed and the pub looking decidedly drab as I went by.

@userxx

But I don't think we need to subsidize people who can already afford to eat out anyway by paying for them to do so.

Its not really about that though is it ? It's about trying to kick start the economy and get the hospitality industry up and running again.

Exactly. Its keeping people in jobs and also getting businesses used to being "covid secure" and customers feeling comfortable with going to these places. The furlough scheme cant run forever. If people go out a few times in August, spurred on by the half price offer, they will see that it's all fine and then be happy to go out in September and beyond. It's getting hospitality restarted.

@KitKatastrophe Spot on. Hopefully it will out as planned.

As has been said, takeaway services have been allowed throughout lockdown. Near us,many takeaways have been doing a roaring trade through lockdown which is great for them.

Problem is, many pubs/restaurants/cafes need people to dine in as well so that they can keep their kitchen/waiting staff on. That's what the scheme is intended for. When I was waitressing, Mon-Wed were always the quietest days of the week so again, it makes sense for the offer to apply on those days.

We did have a meal out at a local place a few weeks back, before the scheme. It was fine and I felt 'safe' but at the moment, I am not dining in places. It just isn't the same. Plus, I am back at work in September in school and I don't want to risk being contacted by track and trace and having to self isolate when term is ready for starting. My students have already had so much disruption and I want to try to avoid further disruption as much as possible.

We had a lovely meal at our local Bangladeshi restaurant last night. They were very careful with social distancing and hygiene.