Pandemic Impact on Home-run Food Enterprises

 

COVID-19 has brought in a lot of lessons for the community… Hygiene, sanitation, social distancing, compassion for the under-privileged to name a few

 

Foodism through this medium would like to understand what post-pandemic would mean for home-run food businesses.

 

There is a growing segment of food micro-entrepreneurs who are whipping up from their home kitchens – wholesome meals for tiffin service; five-course meals/ street food/ continental food for catering during celebrations; bakery and patisserie items; snacks to cater to the ‘love for farsan’ which Gujaratis have; etc.

 

One wonders whether the demand for this sort of service will reduce post-pandemic keeping in view the element of risk and also the less spending power of people in general. 

 

Well there are two sides of the coin…let’s understand this a bit better 

 

On the positive side, as compared to restaurants, people may start trusting home-run smaller food catering units more than the larger ones due to hygiene issues as in case of the former the food preparation process passes through lesser number of hands minimizing the risk of viral and bacterial contamination; plus as this outlet is home-based it offers more security and safety too vis-à-vis a commercial restaurant. Moreover the pricing of the food would also be competitive protecting the pocket of the customer and not making him/her feel guilty of spending extravagantly during challenging times.

 

On the reverse side with more and more people venturing into the hitherto unexplored kitchen territory to keep themselves occupied during the lockdown by preparing all sorts of delicacies – the craze for eating ‘outside food’ per se may pall. 

 

Foodism is sure of one thing the penchant for food will never diminish albeit the mediums of consumption may vary