Why are takeaways the new target?

[Mylittlesandwich]

Not a TAAT but I've noticed a few people seeming quite sure that takeaways will be the next to close. Why have they become the new target? As far as I'm aware they haven't been linked to high transmissions. They're the only way a lot of restaurants and cafes have been able to survive. I admit I have a vested interest as I'm delivering takeaway to pick up some extra money.

Is this actually likely?

@FelineUK

And I thought garden centres were getting the brunt! ;-)

Though I think when people say 'garden centres' they're referring to DIY stores eg B&Q, Homebase etc.

I'm not, I mean garden centres as in nurseries. B&Q is a DIY store, not a garden centre and it needs to be open for household maintenance items, at least on a click and collect basis.

I've been getting a takeaway coffee on my exercise walk. The independent cafe I've been using has one of those big open front windows to serve ice creams from so I don't have to go indoors. I feel it's low risk and like to support an independent business.

It’s not about life’s pleasures being removed to make everyone miserable, is it? It’s about limiting unnecessary interactions. Buying coffee is an unnecessary interaction. Perhaps if fewer people were taking the piss about sending their kids into school, where they will be interacting with several others, then there would be less chance of coffee shops being shut.

I work in a take-away and during the first lockdown we were only open for delivery, we now do click and collect orders as well, we have been ridiculously busy thanks to nothing else being open and everyone wanting some sort of normality. This means we need a hell of a lot of workers in a very small kitchen, there are screens up but that doesn't help those of us who have to move around to do our job. If I lose my job I can't pay my bills - and I'm not entitled to help because my partner earns too much (but we do need my small income as well) so I am terrified of them closing take-aways, but I do think that they should be delivey only at the moment. Contactless deliveries, places like costa could still remain open with options such as uber eats/deliveroo, but there are no customers queing for food and gathering outside the shops and it means that the staff in the kitchen can stick to their stations a little more.

Our local takeaways aren’t safe from the point of view that people use it as an excuse to stand around outside the shop and chat to each other whilst they wait for their food (we live in a fairly rural area where everyone knows everyone). Deliveries are fine but I can see how take aways can be an issue.

@BeakyWinder

The coronavirus board is getting more extreme by the day, some of the views held on there are terrifying. Some posters have decided takeaways are too risky and therefore should be banned, aka I don't want takeaway so noone else can have one either.

Batshit crazy people.

I got called a covid denying prick the other day because I asked an OP for a source to their quote then posted it on the thread.

Quite a few of our small local restaurants have turned to takeaway over the last year, and do it very well - usually with specific pick-up times so that your pizza/Thai/whatever is cooked to order. So, no queues, but also no deliveries as that would be another expense. I'd be very sorry if they were closed, and suspect that some of them wouldn't re-open.

@BeakyWinder

I got called a covid denying prick the other day because I asked an OP for a source to their quote then posted it on the thread.

That’s what you deserve if you dare to even mildly query the rationale behind the close-everything-lockdown-forever orthodoxy, clearly.

No it’s not takeaways causing the spread at all . It’s people’s attitudes like 1 friend round for the evening won’t hurt , I don’t need to wear a mask , not distancing when they meet people.
I went for a jog yesterday and honestly people don’t even think to move if you are walking with someone move in a line so others can pass safely. In Supermarket people won’t distance they are right behind you in the queue .
It’s unfair to close takeaways and it’s the one thing we can enjoy just because others won’t behave properly.

I think takeaways should close to collections, but not for deliveries. And yes, we use them, and will miss them.

I also thought schools should close, I'm a keyworker but was surprised to get a place, as DH isn't (I'm a hospital doctor though).

It would surely be better to pay everyone their full wages if they are required to self isolate rather than shutting anything else. I’d bet that the level of transmission from people who can’t afford to self-isolate for 10 days is more significant than the level of transmission from people queuing outside for takeaway coffee.

@BlueBaubles12

It's hilarious really as I was telling people IRL about the virus in Wuhan before it was headline news, I've followed worldometer since it was basically China and a couple of cruise ships.

The problem to them is I'm not scared enough, my personal risk is tiny and I can risk assess which activities I do or don't do. I'm being much stricter with the new variant as I understand the new risks, but nothing short of surviving off military rations delivered once a week is enough for the covid extremists.

But not being personally terrified makes me a denier

My experience of going in to take aways is limited to coffee shops. Then we just get delivery. In the coffee shops one is drive thru. They have a little platform or drawer type thing to pass it to you. So they don't touch you. I then wipe it down with sanitiser.

In the other shop I went into (Costa) they manage the queue and waiting really well with a person managing the number of people in the shop.

For deliveries mainly from Deliveroo they put the bag on the doorstep. I sanitise my hand immediately. Then wash them after removing items from the bag.

Right now take aways is one of my few pleasures. I really don't see how this is a risk. I'm prepared to reassess as the new strain spreads towards our area and keep an eye on the numbers.

I think as pp's have said it's really just a class thing and something to be hysterical about.

Some of the views on here are genuinely terrifying.

It’s about limiting unnecessary interactions. Buying coffee is an unnecessary interaction.

Not for the coffee shop owner it isn't.

@KatherineJaneway

It’s about limiting unnecessary interactions. Buying coffee is an unnecessary interaction.

Not for the coffee shop owner it isn't.

And why are coffee shop owners any different from other businesses that have had to close or change how they do business? After all, of all the things that are vital to life, the opportunity to stand in a queue of people to buy overpriced coffee is pretty far down the list.

If they change takeaways to deliver only in my area were more likely to die of food poisoning than covid!
If we want a decent takeaway we have no option but to drive(only 10mins but it’s still a drive)
Just eat, Uber eats, deliveroo etc don’t operate in our area, we’re a provincial town just outside of a massive city. We’d have to rely on the local ones who are bloody awful.
I’ve sacrificed a lot in this pandemic and I’m not prepared to to loose the last bit of joy I’ve have with a Friday night takeaway and wine

Lots of elderly (esp. men) living alone have poor cooking skills and facilities; same applies to most of the homeless/near homeless.

Someone's electricity could go and then they can't cook (happened to us twice this year).

Policing has its own principles & theories but most of all it needs to be pragmatic. Do we really want someone quizzing each person in the take-away Q about whether their visit is 'essential' enough? Who should have those powers? What penalty would they apply? Don't they have other priorities of things to police?

I had a McDonald’s breakfast this morning. It was delicious.

Homeless people/ people in poor housing rely on takeaways to an extent.

I've not seen any un-social distanced queues here for ages, but we are an antisocial town and don't tend to chat in queues.

@Brendabigbaps same here.. We have to drive and collect to get a decent takeway. Those that do deliver to us.. I'm kinda put off especially by the boy racer, don't look like they give a crap on hygiene type, delivery drivers. And some of the takeways that are on Just eat of food hubs app round my end, don't have the best hygiene scores either. And then they charge a fortune, take advantage of this covid thing to put prices up. I collect, atleast I know when I collect the order. It's only the kitchen staff and me who's touched it. And its not been in a car who I dont know, maybe had young kids or family members of the driver who may have sneezed or slathered in the car and it's not been cleaned. At the end of day it's up to oneself how comfortable they feel and how they can emlinate some of the risk from the chain of events on getting a takeaway.

It’s tricky but I think there is some genuine risk attached. Before the latest lockdown when takeaway alcohol was allowed I’d see groups of (apparently middle class fwiw) young men standing around on the pavement outside pubs with six quid pints in the freezing cold. IMO that definitely wasn’t OK and I think it was rightly stopped.

In the first lockdown I went up to collect a takeaway from a very popular local chain and the delivery drivers were in an absolute scrum. Fortunately the staff member was handing things out from the door, not letting people inside, but I still felt that he was having to take an unreasonable level of risk, and that would go double with this current strain.

I look after a vulnerable adult and when I can't get there to cook for him he does walk the 200yds to the pizza takeaway or chicken takeaway places so he has something hot to eat. If these were closed down he wouldn't be able to eat a hot meal. Not everyone uses a takeaway for a treat, for some it is a lifeline.

Anyone who says only deliveries should be allowed clearly doesn't live in a rural area where there isn't deliveroo etc .