With sales dramatically down because of the coronavirus, restaurants and cafes are pivoting: offering groceries instead. People were panicking, Richard Williams says. "They couldn't get anything in the supermarkets," says the owner of The Village Bakery & Cafe in Los Angeles. So he and his wife pivoted their business, selling sugar, rice, eggs, beans, yeast, butter and flour — all raw materials the bakery already bought in bulk, but now directly sold to consumers in desperate need. Amid social distancing rules and stay-in-place orders, sales are drastically down for cafes and restaurants around the world. Many are responding by sharply shifting their business at least for now, positioning themselves as ad hoc grocery stores in urban areas hit by the coronavirus pandemic. |