Restaurants slam ban on takeaway that will force them to close, chuck out fresh stock

Thousands of dollars worth of stock will go to waste and restaurants are worried for their future, with takeaway banned under SA’s lockdown.

Restaurants are livid they will not be able to sell takeaway food during SA’s harsh lockdown as they prepare to bin large amounts of stock.

The unexpected announcement on Wednesday that all restaurants pubs, cafes, coffee shops, food courts and takeaway shops would have to shut entirely for six days has sent chefs and owners into a tailspin.

The closure means many cafes and restaurant will not just take a financial hit from not being able to trade, but will also have to chuck out fresh stock that will expire before they re-open.

Allan Coad, head chef at Schnithouse Hilton. Photo: Caleb Bond

Even at the harshest point of restrictions in SA earlier in 2020, outlets were still able to sell takeaway.

Schnithouse Hilton head chef Allan Coad said the lockdown was “terrible” for small business and the community in general.

“Were organising for a lot of stock to be frozen and some of it is probably going to go in the bin,” Mr Coad said.

“It’s pretty bad. We’re only a small place – big places would be in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars lost.”

Mr Coad said he would have happily moved to an online ordering system with contactless pick up.

“I don’t understand why everybody can go to the shop and stuff like that but they can’t stand outside a restaurant and pick up a takeaway order,” he said.

SKARA Greek Street Food owner Con Birbas said the sudden announcement had left him worried about the future of his Semaphore restaurant.

SKARA Greek Street Food owner Con Birbas and staff Mel Chadwick and Dayle Russell following the announcement of SA's six-day lockdown.

“They’re saying six days but they could drag this out longer and I don’t know if we’ll be able to come back from it, we’ll see what happens,” he said.

“It’s our busiest time of year so this is killing us, I don’t know how we’re going to recover.”

Mr Birbas said the decision to disallow even takeaway food had left him with $5000 of stock which would need to be disposed of.

“We could supply a good standard of hygiene and do takeaway to get rid of it for a few days or at least 24 hours but what they’ve done to us now has just left us all in the lurch,” he said.

“The takeaway part I can’t understand, there are line ups at supermarkets and people are in a frenzy for food so and we’d be able to supply people with that food and make sure they don’t have to stress about getting access to it.

“I think they’ve overstepped the mark with not allowing takeaways.”

Premier Steven Marshall said on Wednesday the main aim of the lockdown was to affect a community pause, which the government is referring to as a “circuit breaker” to stop the spread.

“We are really asking the people of South Australia to join with us on this mighty quest to stop this disease in its tracks,” Mr Marshall said.

“We want to stamp it out before it takes hold in South Australia and ruins our economy - we’ve got one chance. This.”

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