On Valentine’s Day, it’s traditional to give greeting cards, heart-shaped chocolate, the quintessential red roses and to go out for a romantic dinner with wine and candlelight, Yet, during COVID-19, celebrating holidays in restaurants and bars remains difficult. Many essential hospitality workers are suffering severe financial woes from a lack of on-premise traffic.
According to a mid-September 2020 survey from the National Restaurant Association, nearly one in six restaurants (representing nearly 100,000 restaurants) is closed either permanently or long term. Meanwhile nearly 3 million employees are still out of work, and the industry was on track to lose $240 billion in sales by the end of the year.