Restaurateurs who claim to find it hard to sleep. Premises that are struggling to collect 200 euros a day, with 25.000 euros of expenses a month to cover (non-deferrable, mostly employee salaries). Losses for the next three months, according to Confcommercio, estimated at 4 billion euros. This is the dramatic picture of Italian bars and restaurants, overwhelmed - especially in the North but now throughout the country - by the absence of customers (if not by the forced closure) due to the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus, which in Italy March 10 has already infected more than 10.000 people and caused 168 deaths.
An alarming situation for the stability of the entire sector: usually, or rather under normal conditionsi, the 330 Italian restaurants have a turnover of 86 billion and employ 1,2 million people. The Government has given the go-ahead for the freezing of mortgages and tax deadlines and this is a shot in the arm, but it won't be enough: "In the first ten days of the crisis, the restaurants in the exposed areas lost 212 million - calculates Giancarlo Banchieri, number one Fiepet, sector organization of Confesercenti –. Now we need the go-ahead for layoffs by way of derogation”.
The alarm mainly concerns restaurants, who work more in the evening but are forced to close at 18, while a bar, albeit with a reduced regime, at least manages to respect the daytime opening hours. That's why they are even the great chefs took to the field, asking for clarity and equal rules for everyone: "Better to close everything for a more limited period", says the open letter of the responsible Milanese Restaurateurs (a list that - from Peck to Pont de Ferr - collects many historical names of the Lombard table).
Meanwhile, fortunately, at least the go-ahead has arrived for the use of kitchens for home delivery after 18 pm: a solution that cushions the crisis and allows all establishments affiliated with food delivery apps to cooking for home delivery, moreover a business in great expansion precisely by virtue of the obligation for consumers to stay at home as much as possible. But according to the chefs, even this may not be enough: "We risk closures and layoffs of many employees".
