While restaurants reel, supermarkets race to keep up with demand

LACONIA — For local restaurants, business is slower or limping, safety precautions are ramped up to new levels of caution, and eateries are switching to takeout, delivery or curbside-pickup only starting today, in response to a directive yesterday from Gov. Chris Sununu’s office. 

At the same time, supermarkets are scrambling to keep shelves stocked with essentials and scheduling more frequent deliveries.

Just about everywhere, worries over the spread of coronavirus are driving fearful consumers, curtailing social gatherings, and cutting into profits for caterers and table-side coffee and food servers.

Annie’s Café and Catering on Gilford Avenue started curbside service Monday for takeout customers who call ahead, pay by credit card and want food orders brought to the car.   Customers will no longer swipe credit cards and enter tips by tapping a screen. 

“There’s no more self-tapping, no more samples, and everything’s completely covered” on the counter, said owner and chef Annie Bridgeman.  “We’re just following local, state and federal mandates.”  Café business has dropped by 50 percent since local fears surged recently over the virus, and business and social catering events have been cancelled through the beginning of April, she said.

“One to two weeks is not going to hurt me.  The financial effects will start to ripple through in the next 30 days.  That’s when business sense will kick in over caution,” Bridgeman said. “The state will lose so much revenue. But we have to follow leaders for what is the safest way to proceed, and lessen the effects for everybody.”

Today, Patrick’s Pub in Gilford starts lunch and dinner takeout delivery to the parking lot for customers who call, pay ahead by credit card and phone when they’re waiting outside in the car, said Kendra Dorais, a bartender at Patrick’s Pub.  Through Monday, the restaurant had seating at every other table, and half the barstools were removed to increase social distance.

At noon yesterday, the drive-through line at McDonald’s on Union Avenue in Laconia looked a little longer than usual, and fewer people seemed to be seated inside, although the local manager declined to comment and referred questions to national headquarters, which did not return a phone call.

David Blais and Linda Mussey of Franklin, both older customers in the age range considered most vulnerable to the virus, said they ate inside, undeterred. “They’re constantly cleaning, wiping things down with Clorox,” said Mussey, who also eats regularly at McDonald’s in Franklin.  “There’s nothing we can do.  If we get it, we get it.”

Lakeside Pizza on Union Avenue stayed busy through the weekend, and regular customers keep coming, said Erica Marchione, assistant manager. Partner restaurant  405 Grill and Pub hopes to be able to offer takeout and deliveries soon, said a bartender who declined to be named.

Matthew Missert, 24, a Laconia native, drove up Thursday from Brooklyn, New York, after his digital marketing office in Manhattan closed Tuesday, requiring everyone to work remotely – a change he said is prudent and realistic. “For someone my age, it’s not a risk,” he said, “but it’s irresponsible to put others at risk.  It only takes one person to spread it to another,” said Missert, who ate lunch Monday at Lakeside.  In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo required all bars and gyms to shut down for two weeks starting Monday night, and restaurants will be limited to takeout only, Missert said.

Fratello’s restaurant advertised deliveries of takeout for parties at home.

Canterbury Aleworks, while continuing to serve samples on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and increasing sanitation of glasses and surfaces, is now selling “growlers” – 64 ounce jugs of beer – at the taproom door.  So far no one has emailed him with orders, owner Steve Allman said Monday.  He said the NH Brewer’s Association and the NH Liquor Commission were working with the governor’s office to allow temporary delivery of unopened containers of alcoholic beverages such as craft beer.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced Monday that restaurants will be fined and closed for 30 days if they sell food other than takeout.

Crystal McDonough, a wellness teacher at Laconia High School, where teachers are transitioning to remote learning, and Maggie Roberts, a social studies teacher at Laconia High, came to Lakeside Pizza for takeout on Monday, and believe the precautions and service interruptions, though disruptive to businesses, students and daily life, are wise given the scale of the potential contagion.  “We won’t know if we’re going overboard until six months from now. It’s aways good to stay safe,” Roberts said.

Meanwhile, area supermarkets continue to see a boom in demand and sales, with some customers racing to stock up on basics such as milk, eggs, meat and canned and frozen food, local store managers said.  Toilet paper continued to be scarce or nonexistent on store shelves.

Michelle Tucker, an expediter in the Hannaford to Go service at the Gilford store, said the store had to limit customers to two packages per visit. Some customers have been stocking up for one to two months.  Hannaford to Go is booked until Thursday, she said, and trying to ramp up to meet demand for curbside deliveries to cars outside the store, but is limited by the speed at which items are being purchased by shoppers, and how quickly the store can restock.

“It’s almost like Fourth of July week, except everything’s going out faster,“ said assistant store manager Troy Cone.

By 11:30 am, 72 gallons of water had sold at Hannaford, said Spencer Hermonat, center store supervisor. “We had more sales this past weekend than Fourth of July weekend.   People have been buying for friends and family members.  People are buying more than a month’s worth of toilet paper.”   

“I think it’s just mass hysteria,” said Tucker, echoing sentiments of some customers there, who said they were shopping only for what they actually needed.  “It think everyone’s feeding into what could be the worst-case scenario, when it’s really just people with weakened immune systems” and elderly people who are at risk for the flu-like illness, which has affected 17 NH residents so far and not yet resulted in deaths.  Media hype is stoking the frenzy, Tucker said. “It should be dying out soon,” she said. “I’m hoping for only a week or two left of the actual craziness.”

Bill and Joanne Sweeney, both 68, drove up from Canton, Mass., to spend the week at their condo in Gilford.  “Under normal circumstances, we’d be doing grandma and grandpa duty. It’s a stressful time for everybody.  You can feel everyone’s anxiety,” Bill said.  “Say your prayers and hope we get through this in a relatively short time.  In my lifetime, I haven’t seen anything like this.”

One shopper from Gilford came to Vista Foods in Laconia Monday to buy ground beef and chicken because Hannaford and Shaw’s had sold out by 1:30 pm, she said.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, other than just before a snowstorm,” said Vista Foods’ manager Bob Fitzpatrick, who said toilet paper sold out in three hours after it was delivered Monday morning.  “This is like a long snowstorm.  This keeps going and going and going.  We just don't know if and when” the coronavirus scare, consumer rush, and business effects are going to slow down. 

Half of Vista Foods customers are age 50 or older, Fitzpatrick said, and so far older regulars haven’t been discouraged from shopping.  The difference is that now many Vista customers are parents coming with children, including teenagers, now that schools throughout the state are closed through April 3.

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The Sunshine Project is underwritten by grants from the Endowment for Health, New Hampshire’s largest health foundation, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Roberta Baker can be reached by email at Roberta@laconiadailysun.com