N.J. to Reopen Indoor Dining in Restaurants
On July 2 with capacity limits. Indoor dining in New Jersey can resume in early July with capacity limits after restaurants were forced to shutter their businesses in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday morning. Restaurants will be required to limit indoor capacity to 25% when they reopen on July 2 and other rules will be announced “within the next several days,” the governor said. The step comes after restaurants were permitted to reopen with outdoor dining that began on June 15 after about three months of only serving takeout.
N.J. Reopening Atlantic City Casinos in Time for July 4th Weekend
After 3-month coronavirus shutdown. New Jersey will allow Atlantic City’s casinos to reopen to gamblers on July 2 with 25% capacity limits after being closed for months to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday. Atlantic City’s casinos were among the first businesses mandated to close in New Jersey as the coronavirus spread through the state. Murphy ordered them to temporarily shutter March 17, along with gyms, movie theaters, and dine-in restaurants. Some gambling halls have continued to accept hotel reservations, but their gaming floors have been off-limits.
Another Big NJ Reopen Day
Here’s what you can do now amid Covid. Time to get a haircut, jump in a pool, hit a baseball or golf ball or get your driver’s license renewed. Indeed, lines were forming outside barber shops as Monday promises to be yet another big reopening day in New Jersey since Gov. Phil Murphy issued a stay-at-home order and closed nonessential businesses on March 21. As part of New Jersey’s “stage-two” reopening, a long list of activities are allowed to resume on Monday, largely because of New Jersey’s progress in containing the coronavirus and slowing the growth rate of the disease.
This is Now the Fastest Way to Check if a Restaurant is Safe
Yelp has added cleanliness and coronavirus precaution indicators. If you’re riddled with anxiety about the post-pandemic reopenings in your town, and wondering how to best make decisions for your own health, you can breathe a sigh of relief—all the safety information from your local businesses is now right at your fingertips. Yelp announced they have added cleanliness and coronavirus precaution indicators to their business pages. While safety guidelines and restrictions greatly vary from one state, and even county, to another, the site is taking matters into their own hands to provide a crucial link in communication between businesses and customers on coronavirus safety.
Grocers Get Creative
Consider robots to revive prepared food amid pandemic. Grocers and industry watchers say self-serve bars may be gone for a while, and perhaps forever, even as consumers return to more typical buying patterns. That’s sparked creative solutions and new safety measures. At Publix, salad bars and hot bars have reopened, but employees dish out each item. Wegmans moved hummus, olives and more behind the counter. And at H-E-B, some coolers carry prepared meals from local restaurants. For some companies, closed salad bars have created new opportunities. California-based Chowbotics previously marketed its foodservice robot to hospitals and college campuses. Each robot costs $35,000, including training, maintenance and marketing, he said. Customers order on the robot’s touchscreen, get a bowl and put it under the dispenser. Items typically range from about $5 to $11.
Opinion: What the Next Stimulus Plan Should Look Like
The economy needs a new round of fiscal support. So far, the U.S. economic-policy response to the coronavirus crisis has been impressive. Nobody could accuse Congress and the Federal Reserve of being timid about supporting output and employment. Even so, their work is just getting started. The recovery is underway, but it follows an extraordinarily deep decline. If all goes well from here — a big if — it will take months and maybe years to get back on track. Meanwhile, several of the emergency budget measures included in the recent CARES Act and other pandemic legislation will soon expire. The economy needs a new round of fiscal support.
Did You Know?
Retailers are hiring people to take temperatures and enforce social distancing. The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed what it is like to work in a store. Retailers are hiring workers to take temperatures, keep stores clean, and enforce social distancing. Extra cleaning, managing store capacity, checking temperatures: The coronavirus pandemic has added quite a few tasks to the typical retail worker’s job description. Often, these tasks are being added to existing employees’ daily work.
Employee Tip
Stimulus check 2 payment: Could you get $1,200 more, a $4,000 credit or something else? Congress may pass another coronavirus relief package before the end of 2020. It could include a second payment, but that’s not the only proposal on the table. The House of Representatives has already put its cards on the table, proposing a second round of $1,200 checks in 2020. But it’s not the only idea being presented to help the faltering US economy. In a White House round-table discussion in May, President Donald Trump suggested a travel tax credit as a way to put money back into the US economy during the coronavirus pandemic. There’s also been talk of tax breaks for businesses as a way to get people back to work, an approach that could skip personal checks for individuals and families.
Bielat Santore & Company – Restaurant Industry Daily Alerts
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