Main Issues Statement

Discuss the main issues on the newspaper article:-

Covid-19 have been spread into Malaysia in early 2020 and the Malaysia government started
the Movement Control Order( MCO) in 18 March 2020. Since the Movement Control Order
(MCO) was imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the whole food and beverage
industry came to an unprecedented standstill, changing its landscape for the long run. Under
the second phase of the MCO which started on April 1, supermarkets, restaurants, and food
delivery services were allowed to operate from 8am to 8pm.This will effect the income of the
restaurant owner that they get from the customer who come to the restaurant through walk
in.Customer will no longer can come to eat,doing business and etc in the restaurant because
of the MCO that restrict citizens to leave their house.Most entrepreneurs struggle during the
MCO meanwhile the F&B have adapted and take advantages of the situation.The food delivery
company such as Food Panda,Grab Food,McDelivery and etc have huge demand during the
pandemic from the customer because of the restriction leaving the house that government
order to the citizen.People who have no time to cook and the people who can’t cook will
definitely use the sevice more often and because of that the delivery service have such a huge
demand during the MCO.The company have increase the number of worker to ensure the
business going smoothly and also ensure the customer have great customer service.Most of
the restaurant owner have now become client and prioritise the food delivery service.In order
to run the delivery service,restaurant owner need to register their restaurant to the delivery
company like Food Panda and Grab Food so that the customer can visit their restaurant and
the menu they offer through the delivery app.During the MCO most of the restaurant owner
relying on the delivery service to make sure their business survive during the pandemic that
being spread in the country.Despite the fact that they have huge demand on the delivery
service they struggle to make a good profit just through the delivey service.The owner need
to pay the employees monthly salaries and aslo the shop rent to the lanlord,because of this
issues the owner end up with little amount of profit.Even though they got lot of demand of
delivery service it’s still not enough to compete the profit that they earn during the MCO.Most
of the citizen cook on their own and also the people who didn’t know how to cook begin to
learn to cook during the MCO in order to save their money.The price of the menu in the delivery
service is higher compared to the price in the restaurant,because the restaurant owner and
the customer need to pay the delivery service.Because of that most of the people took initiative
to cook and learn at their home rather than spending money on the delivery service.The
operate time also effect the profit they got,they have 12 hour of operation hour from 8 a.m to
8 p.m.Most the Malaysia citizen will have their food during breakfast,lunch and dinner.They
have not problem ro get order and deliver the food during breakfast and lunch however they
will face problem during the dinner time,because most of the people usually have their dinner
after 8 p.m.That is why their profit went down because they can’t provide and get order after
8 p.m due to the MCO terms.
The advantages and disadvantages of MCO (Movement Control Order) towards foodservice
operators or other related business provider in Malaysia

The Advantages

High demand
During the MCO the most valuable things that citizens priority is food.Food supplies from
supermarket always get sold quickly because of the restrictions leaving the house that the
government order to citizens.During the MCO people can go to the supermarket to buy
supplies but with strict terms like limited time spend during in the market,only one to two person
allowed at a time and social distancing,because of this people didn’t wanted to burden their
self to go to supermarket everyday with such terms.The most wanted food supplies that often
sold out is rice,bread,instant food and etc.Supplier will get huge demand on the products that
sold out quickly and will produce more everyday.Such situation can make the supplier and
food supplier companies extend their build during the MCO compared to other non related
food product companies.Other than that restaurant and food delivery service such as Food
Panda,Grab Food,McDelivery is also high demand during the MCO.Some people preferred to
stay at home rather go out to restaurant or supermarket to buy food and risking their self to
the covid-19 virus.News stated the food delivery service demand grow up to 30% during the
MCO,it being said a lot of people use the service as time goes on.The food delivery service is
so high demand during the MCO that the country have recognised the worker of food delivery
service is one of the frontliner that being respected.

Profit
In such situations that the food delivery and food products suppliers is high on demand the
profit that they got from the service is increased.In case for the food provider they will get their
profit from the amount of order that they get from the customer,the higher the amount of order
they get,the higher the profit that they get.In case of the food delivery service they will get the
profit from the food provider and customer that they charge up to 30% to 35% in the menu in
order to pay their services that they pickup from the food provider to the house of the customer
safely and on time.Food provider and food delivery company is the most profitable business
during the MCO compared to the other company that provide clothing,houseware and etc.

Increase Number Of Worker

During the MCO most of citizen have nothing to do during their quarantine time because
generally, only companies providing essential services are allowed to operate during the
MCO period. Effectively, employers in non-essential services cannot require their employees
to attend office.Throughout the MCO period, employers are required to continue paying
monthly salary and related allowances to employees.Because of this some people took the
advantages of the high demand and profitable business and turn their self into one of the
worker to make some money.In such high demand that the food provider and food delivery
have,that need more man power to handle the service to ensure the business go smoothly
and ensure cutomer satisfaction suing their service.Food provider and food delivery
companies didn’t need to worry about the lack of man power to handle their business because
the increase number of worker they have during the MCO.

Safe from the Covid-19

The government have order the food provider service to not let any customer dine-in their
restaurant.Customer can only order their food for take away only.Other than that they need to
follow the SOP that the government have given to them for safety mesaure to avoid the Covid-
19 from spreading and and to break the chain.They need to apply the social
distancing.Restaurant owners must rearrange their tables with a minimum distance of 2
metres between tables. This is to ensure a safe distance between dine-in customers. Social
distancing must be practised at all times and there should be a notice on the table on the
maximum number of people permitted depending on the size of the table.For a small table for
4, the governent suggest limiting one or two persons per table, while a large table for 8 may
be limited to 3 to 4 persons. This must be determined by restaurant operators.At the counter,
there should be lines on the floor to ensure social distancing when customers queue up to
make payment. There must be a distance of 1 metre between each line. Restaurants should
also provide hand sanitiser at the counters and sufficient hand soap at the
washroom. Operators must also sanitise the tables and chairs immediately after each
customer is done with their meals and before the next customer is seated. Restaurants must
provide face masks to its employees and it must be worn at all times.Other than that Similar
to supermarkets, all customers must undergo temperature checks before they are allowed to
enter the restaurant. Restaurants must also record the name and contact number of all
customers that enter their premises along with the date and time of visit. This is to help with
contact tracing in case a customer is tested positive for COVID-19.The goverment iterated
that restaurant operators must make the necessary preparations before they can reopen for
dine-in customers. The same rule also applies to stalls and food truck operators. This is to
ensure the safety of customers that dine-in at their premises.

The disadvantage

Limited Operating Time

During the MCO the restaurant and the food delivery service can only operate in limited time
which is only 12 hour from 8 a.m to 8 p.m.This case will impact restaurant and business that
run 24 hours usally before the MCO.For the restaurant that relies on dinner service will be
effect to this new limited operating time.The restaurant and the food delivery service will get
no profit after 8 p.m because they need to close their restaurant or they will get action from
the authorities that may ruining their business.Some restaurant and food delivery service get
most of the profit from dinner time before the MCO because most of people often leave their
house and spend their time with family or friends in restaurant during dinner time which is after
8 p.m.During MCO restaurant and food delivery service need to stop after 8 p.m and can be
the reason some of them earn less profit during the MCO compared to before the MCO.They
need to adapt to the situation to save their buildings that may be hard because some of them
already used to open late at night before the MCO.In conclusion they lost 12 hour of profit that
they use to have from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m for the restaurant that used to open 24 hour before the
MCO.

Cost Of Packaging
All the food provider and food delivery service need to provide packages for the foods and the
beverages that they sold to their customer.All the packaging that they provide to the customer
cost the their own money,because of this they will need to cut their own budget and profit.This
is one of the reason they earn less profit than usally compared before the MCO.The packaging
is important for the delivery and take away order in order to ensure the safety of the customer
order.The packaging is also important for the customer to make the first impression of their
order that they got from the food provider and the delivery service. Packaging doesn’t come
cheap. In fact, packaging costs typically account for 8% to 10 of overall product costs. In
addition to production costs, shipping and distribution costs may be affected based on the
packaging materials a businesses chooses to use. Inventory costs that are based on the size
of a packaged product will differ based on a product’s packaging design. If your business
cannot afford its ideal packaging design, don’t get discouraged. Srinivasan cites an example
in his article “The Many Factors to Consider When Deciding the Best Packaging for Your Food
Product” that demonstrates how packaging can evolve to become more sophisticated as a
business grows.

Cost Delivery
Event though the demand for food delivery is sky rocket during the MCO,the food provider
need to pay the amount they charge to the food delivery company for their delivery
service.This is also one of the factor that the food provider earn less profit compared to the
profit that they earn before the MCO run. Food delivery company charge the food provider to
offset the costs of delivering food from their kitchens to the customer destination.The average
delivery fee is around 7–15 percent of the delivery order, but these fees vary across
restaurants. Some restaurants even waive the fee. While it’s not pleasant to pay an extra
charge, delivery fees are the price of convenience. The cost of delivering food to customers is
more expensive than usuals.The delivery fee covers incidentals and everything that’s going to
get the food order from point A to point B, minus the driver’s living wage.Because of this reason
some people try to avoid spend more money to the food delivery and because of this they take
their own initiative to cook and learn how to cook at their own place.
As a culinarian, how can you response with this issue in relation to embark on your future
career?

In my opinion in the future I will become restaurant owner.In order to through all the issues
that have been stated I will take few steps to respond to this issues.First I will switch to takeout
and deliveries. I will have up to five people in the restaurant at a time to pick up orders. Use
disposable gloves to hand over the food,sanitize or change gloves between each order.Set
up curbside pickup. Either bring the food directly to the customer’s car or put a table outside,
weather permitting, from which they can pick up their food. Add a bottle of hand sanitizer and
paper towels with a sign encouraging the customers to use it.Some downtown areas are
creating centralized pickup zones for takeout food.Right now, the customers are getting
comfortable with having everything delivered, including food. While continuing to take orders
through Food Panda and Grab Food consider offering free delivery through my restaurant.
This would allow me to utilize staff that might otherwise be furloughed. Additionally, some
customers don’t trust that food delivery services adhere to safe handling procedures. Here are
my plan for deliveries.Use hot boxes to ensure the food is delivered at the right temperature
and limit the distance in which you can deliver to make sure the covid-19 are not being spread.
Later I will change up my menu.My restaurant may be known for its gourmet food and fine-
dining experience, but if I want to stay open during this COVID-19 pandemic, I may need to
change things up a little. Here are some way.Streamline the offering this is not the time for a
10 page menu. I will likely have limited kitchen staff, so pick a few things I do well, are profitable
and my customers love.Use up inventory. Create dishes that use what I have on hand. While
I may have not seen any issues in the supply chain, it might be a good time to switch to canned
and other shelf-stable ingredients. I can always switch back when things are back to
normal.Create or modify offerings that stand up to travel. Think of food items that are easy to
pack and transport. This has traditionally included pizza and sandwiches, but salads also do
well. With people grocery shopping less, they might appreciate some fresh salads and veggies
on the menu. Design family-style meals. Make it more economical and convenient to place a
large order.Put my menu online and promote it on social media.
Reference

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movement-control-order-mco-effects-towards-fb-industry/

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https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/05/13/despite-relaxed-
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