Restaurants try to offer freebies to get customers to wear masks

Across the country, several states and metropolitan areas have raised mask orders, some of which have never been.

But in many places, restaurant workers have not yet received the vaccine, leaving them vulnerable to COVID-19.

So restaurant owners have offered incentives, such as free food, to get customers to keep the mask on in their shops.

Unfortunately, the idea doesn’t get much traction. In Gulfport, Florida, Golden Dinosaurs, a vegan lunch venue, was offering free donuts if customers wore masks to their pickup window for 30 days straight.

The response, according to a viral tweet from employee Rachel Knox, was sad.

In Chicago, Manny’s Deli has embraced the mask-wearing challenge, with an offer of free sandwiches, and is also struggling to get customers to comply.

Danny Raskin, a fourth-generation member who owns Manny, says he doesn’t think customers are deliberately obstructing it.

“They’re not doing it on purpose,” Raskin says. “These are not against traders trying to make a point. It’s people who don’t understand how they need one – yet – or forget what they’re doing. ”

The famous Chicago deli has a self-catering cafe line, just south of the Loop business district. Visitors, who included Barack Obama and President’s adviser Valerie Jarrett, go through the line, place their sandwich and food orders, pay, and then find a table.

Unlike other restaurants, Manny does not have a side-by-side service, so the main interaction between customers and employees takes place in line. That’s where the problem comes in, Raskin says.

Customers slide down the mask to place their orders, as their voices are damaged by the covers. As soon as they sit down, they remove the mask to eat. Then, when they go back to the counter to get boxes for leftovers, they don’t put the mask back on.

Raskin says the restaurant urges fans to keep the mask on at all times, but when eating, follow CDC instructions. Signs up everywhere are reminding people to do just that. But still, the guidelines are not working.

So, the free sandwich offer. “I’d like to take out the sandwiches,” Raskin says. “We’re trying to make it a fun way to follow the rules. In fact, getting up to 30 days should not be a problem. ”

Raskin asks if he should reconsider the offer, and possibly be rewarded after seven days of surrender. He does not want to pick a new date and start the clock again. “The goal is not to continue setting it again,” he says.

With the pandemic, he and other Chicago restaurants are allowed to take more guests in their dining rooms, but Raskin says business is still difficult.

For me, the biggest problem is that the city area is completely empty. We need tourism. We need people to go back to work, ”he says. “When you look at downtown Chicago, it’s still a ghost city. It still looks like it did six months ago. ”

Raskin says he was pleased with the outcome of his sandwich series in late 2020 and early 2021, in which Manny worked with other Chicago restaurants to offer a special weekly program.

The pandemic is “you can be competitive, but you can also be gracious, and share business and not try to do everything on your own,” Raskin says.

Now, if people just keep following mask rules, their sandwich will be free.