Coronavirus could irreversibly change restaurants, with experts predicting customer temperature checks and new fears of crowds

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Coronavirus could irreversibly change restaurants, with experts predicting customer temperature checks and new fears of crowds
FILE PHOTO: An empty restaurant is seen in Manhattan borough following the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New York City, U.S., March 15, 2020. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

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An empty restaurant is seen in Manhattan borough following the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City

  • While people are dreaming of returning to restaurants and bars following the coronavirus outbreak, some experts say that the pandemic will create long-term changes in the industry.
  • Similar to how September 11 changed the airline industry, experts say that customers' fears and new precautions will force restaurants to adapt to a new normal.
  • Some possible changes include customer temperature checks, fewer people being allowed in a restaurant, and the decline of crowded bars and even intimate dates.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Many are dreaming about what they'll do when the coronavirus pandemic is behind us.

People are already imagining their first weekend when things are back to normal, a time filled with restaurants, bars, and all the socializing people around the world will have avoided for weeks and even months.

But, experts say, even when restaurants are once again allowed to open seating areas, it seems unlikely that things will return to the way they were pre-COVID-19.

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Roger Lipton, a restaurant industry analyst, investor, and advisor, predicts that this will change the restaurant industry "like 9/11 changed our lives." While once people were able to casually walk onto planes, Americans have now accepted new levels of security as the norm.

"There's going to be a new normal in terms of our lifestyle," Lipton told Business Insider. "I'm inclined to think that we're not going to be back to so-called normal operations for the foreseeable future."

Lipton continued: "I don't see Cheesecake Factory packing them in anytime soon. ... When is Olive Garden going to be packed again? When are they going to seat people like they used to? I don't see that happening for quite awhile. Probably years."

Here are a few ways that the coronavirus pandemic may transform the restaurant industry.

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Up to 200,000 restaurants across the US may simply not exist anymore.

Up to 200,000 restaurants across the US may simply not exist anymore.

UBS analyst Dennis Geiger estimates that up to 20% of the more than one million restaurants across America could permanently shutter due to the coronavirus outbreak. Independent restaurants and certain franchisees, especially in the casual dining industry, are in particularly risky situations.

Customer temperature checks could be the norm.

Customer temperature checks could be the norm.

Chains including McDonald's, Burger King, and Popeyes are rolling out temperature checks. Lipton says that, as restaurants begin opening dining rooms, people may need to have their temperature tested before they are allowed to sit down.

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Social distancing may mean fewer tables and less crowded dining rooms.

Social distancing may mean fewer tables and less crowded dining rooms.

Pacific Management Consulting Group founder John Gordon said restaurants would likely continue some social distancing measures when they reopen, putting more space between tables and packing fewer customers into dining rooms.

"A Friday night, Saturday night, a busy Sunday, you are not going to be able to be able to ... produce the same number of bodies, the same amount of sales because of the need to provide some social distance between guests," Gordon said.

Cozy, crowded bars could suffer.

Cozy, crowded bars could suffer.

Bars — especially those in cities that typically have a crush of customers crowding around — will need to adjust to a new normal in which close contact still concerns many people, Gordon says.

"That's an area that might lag considerably because of the social distancing issue," Gordon said. "Even two people on a date, there might be a little bit more distancing."

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