Lifting Friday curfew in Jordan lights up hopes for sales of restaurants, cafes

AMMAN — With people still in the curfew mood, restaurants owners expressed hopes of business recovery with time.

Business is not going as expected, as people are still used to the Friday lockdown, according to restaurant and cafe owners.

Despite of the government’s decision to end Friday’s curfew, the demand was not as expected in restaurants because people still used to stay home on Friday, said restaurant and cafes owners.

A curfew on Fridays had been imposed across the country for some months in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The government last week lifted the curfew and reopened some sectors amid improvement in the epidemiological situation.

“Our monthly sales were affected immensely by Friday curfews as we excluded four days off every month. But people are still used to the lockdown, not a great number of people showed up. The first Friday with no lockdown was not better than any regular weekday for us,” said Firas Ghaith, a restaurant manager in Amman.

While most restaurants did not have a great first Friday with no lockdown, some others had “successful ones”.

“First Friday with no lockdown was one of the absolute best days we have had in the restaurant for a while. It was special and we were full all day. Friday is a family time and people like to go out,” Mohammad Nasir, a restaurant manager in Amman, told The Jordan Times.

He added that they are still struggling because of the government’s measures to curb the spread of the virus, saying their sales went down by 90 per cent.