Shorter hours but eateries happy to serve

PETALING JAYA: Eateries are all geared up to operate under shorter operating hours to comply with the latest SOP beginning today.

Despite the short notice, many operators said they were grateful to be able to continue with their business.

Danial Marizd, of the La Famiglia food truck business, said with eateries only allowed to operate between 8am and 8pm, he planned to maximise lunch orders.

“We have two operating windows – lunch and dinner – but we now may need to focus on lunch sales and extend our operating hours a bit to try and catch the dinner crowd around 6pm, ” he said, adding that he also planned to use food delivery platforms to dispatch orders.

Danial is no stranger to making changes as he had to weather some storms since the pandemic began.

“As entrepreneurs, we must think positive, how to deal with the situation and I pray every day that the pandemic will end soon, ” he said.

Cafe owner Maximillan Lim said he was relieved that eateries could continue operating during MCO 3.0, saying this meant his workers’ jobs were saved.

“When the government was due to announce the latest SOP, they were very worried about their jobs.

“It turned out that we can still operate until 8pm. So we are all grateful, including our families, ” he said.

Sate Famili branch manager Syarafiq Abd Samad said with shorter operating hours enforced, the restaurant was making adjustments.

“We anticipate some problems with the 8pm closing time as many customers tend to place orders late, ” he said.

Norafifi Ehsan, who runs a dessert stall at a food court in Bandar Tasik Selatan, welcomed the 8pm closing time.

“Business tends to slow down after that hour. I think many food court operators welcome the latest SOP. There is always the delivery platforms to depend on, ” she said.