The Effects of Pandemic on our Service Industry.

[GreaterMontréal]

The most important effect of this pandemic will be the real estate crash.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Yesterday I went to Nordstrom and all the staff was wearing face masks and the usually busy beauty section was dead, they were offering 10% off anything you bought as the sales girl said that they have never done that before especially on the $300 candle brands.

LOL at the idea of a $300 candle

[Acajack]

One impact I am noticing is the impact on customer service lines, emails and chatrooms. I know they're swamped and also short-staffed due to people calling in sick but I've had to call a few places and gotten warning messages about how the wait time is multiple hours!

I've told my family that if anything goes down (Internet, cable, phones, etc.) that we might have to do without for a little while.

Not expecting this to get any better in the short term.

[LakeLocker]

Originally Posted by Acajack

One impact I am noticing is the impact on customer service lines, emails and chatrooms. I know they're swamped and also short-staffed due to people calling in sick but I've had to call a few places and gotten warning messages about how the wait time is multiple hours!

I've told my family that if anything goes down (Internet, cable, phones, etc.) that we might have to do without for a little while.

Not expecting this to get any better in the short term.

Depends on the level of government incompetence.


Would seem like a sure fire way to create many thousands of stay at home jobs.

There are a many of folk like myself with call center experience.

Even if I were so incompetent I could only take 1 call per hour it'd still be a far better option than simply giving me UI.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by LakeLocker

Depends on the level of government incompetence.


Would seem like a sure fire way to create many thousands of stay at home jobs.

There are a many of folk like myself with call center experience.

Even if I were so incompetent I could only take 1 call per hour it'd still be a far better option than simply giving me UI.

I was actually trying to get in touch with private entities (large corporations in fact), not government.

Though I assume getting through to certain government agencies is probably a nightmare too right now.

[ssiguy]

I work PT {about 12 hours/week} at a restaurant and now more than 3/4 of the staff is gone and it is increasingly looking like the entire restaurant will close. We are still open for take-out and delivery but the business hours have gone from 10 to 11 hours a day to just 4 and a half and the restaurant simply can't survive on that especially because a good chunk of the income was due to liquor sales which are now non-existent. Although this is just PT for me, my income is about to drop by about $800/month and that's after tax income.

[LakeLocker]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I was actually trying to get in touch with private entities (large corporations in fact), not government.

Though I assume getting through to certain government agencies is probably a nightmare too right now.

I meant government would assist private companies in fast tracking hiring.

I.e. covering training wages etc.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by ssiguy

f and the restaurant simply can't survive on that especially because a good chunk of the income was due to liquor sales which are now non-existent.

I was watching Spokane news and they mentioned that Washington State restaurants are now allowed to sell some forms of alcohol with food deliveries and takeout. It's something that the Provinces should consider.

[Acajack]

Seems like buglaries in businesses are already starting to tick upwards.

Almost an inevitable effect of fewer eyes on the street.

[PEI highway guy]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Seems like buglaries in businesses are already starting to tick upwards.

Almost an inevitable effect of fewer eyes on the street.

I was wondering to myself yesterday if the crime rate would rise

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by PEI highway guy

I was wondering to myself yesterday if the crime rate would rise

I think it's already rising slightly due to "opportunity".

Economic hardship hasn't really set in for most people who've lost their jobs as the last paycheques have been received or will be shortly, and some even have a bit of reserve funds too.

Once things start to hit more intensely it is likely we will see a bigger spike.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by accord1999

I was watching Spokane news and they mentioned that Washington State restaurants are now allowed to sell some forms of alcohol with food deliveries and takeout. It's something that the Provinces should consider.

I was wondering about that the other day. Not sure I see any downside to it.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I was wondering about that the other day. Not sure I see any downside to it.

I thought I'd heard that some provinces were also going to loosen that up? Ontario? Quebec?

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I was wondering about that the other day. Not sure I see any downside to it.

I'm not sure if my lack of concern about this bespeaks my status of a lightweight or the robust nature of my liquor cabinet...

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Vorkuta

I'm not sure if my lack of concern about this bespeaks my status of a lightweight or the robust nature of my liquor cabinet...

I was thinking more in terms of the extra revenue that restaurants could spin ...

[LakeLocker]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Seems like buglaries in businesses are already starting to tick upwards.

Almost an inevitable effect of fewer eyes on the street.

That's depressing people haven't even started to run out of money yet.

I think people are radically ill prepared for the amount of crime that is about to occur.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by accord1999

I was watching Spokane news and they mentioned that Washington State restaurants are now allowed to sell some forms of alcohol with food deliveries and takeout. It's something that the Provinces should consider.

BC allowed this as of last week sometime.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Seems like buglaries in businesses are already starting to tick upwards.

Almost an inevitable effect of fewer eyes on the street.

I have seen mention of some incidents where closed businesses have been hit by burglars on Winnipeg Twitter, but I had occasion to talk to the police a couple of days ago and they said that calls were down significantly on the whole. I noticed a couple of US news articles in recent days speaking to a similar phenomenon.

But that said, the situation could change after a couple of months of this.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I thought I'd heard that some provinces were also going to loosen that up? Ontario? Quebec?

Ontario announced this afternoon that licenced restaurants could offer take away alchohol with take away food, effective immediately.

[niwell]

Apparently as written, bars/restaurants will retain the ability to sell takeaway alcohol until December 31st too. While I can't see it making a huge difference, specialty beer and wine bars could certainly benefit from the ability to sell things that you can't easily get elsewhere.

Before the announcement there were a lot of places doing this on the down low and no real enforcement was occurring. Don't has me how I know this