Restaurant director says ENDS mainly benefits fast food restaurants

Alexx Antaeus, director of Reggae Mill Restaurant and Bar, oberved the E-Commerce National Delivery Solution (ENDS) mainly benefited fast food restaurants. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, night time businesses, which heavily include restaurants and bars, have been affected because the government’s policy has been against our hours of operation,” said Antaeus. He added that the early curfews, and weekend lockdowns have seriously affected the business.

“The majority of people have been feeling the pressure recently because of the weekday lockdowns, but we have been suffering for a year and half,” said Antaeus. The director noted that business is down by 80 per cent.

He mentioned that ENDS is a great idea and was better than nothing but, “It seems to work better for fast food places, KFC, Pizza Hut. Upscale restaurants like ours are not doing as well. Most families that want to eat during the lockdown order from fast food places, not upscale restaurants”. However, the director added that the platform has been helpful, but not enough to make up for the losses of closing.

Victor Clemetson, CEO of delivery service Cutdiline, said orders were equal for fast food and ‘fancy’ restaurants. “I wouldn’t say there is a difference. Customers tend to order from what is available,” said Clemetson.

Similarly, Omar Fennell, founder of delivery company 876GET, said customers order from any restaurant that was available. “Jamaican people love KFC, that is nothing that you can deny but every restaurant that we have on the platform would have seen some sort of increase,” said Fennell. He added that all restaurants on the platform were often out of food because of the volume of orders. However, 50 per cent of the orders were from KFC.

Amashika Lorne, Project Manager of ENDS, said the project prided itself on inclusivity and equity. “I can’t say if ENDS is more beneficial to one group over another. I think based on a company’s respective business model, they will have to make that determination. They have to weigh things in terms of, ‘does it make business sense for me to keep the lights on?’” said Lorne.

“ENDS is a registration portal for compliant businesses to operate during the curfew hours. The aim is to facilitate business continuity in a controlled manner while we contain the spread of COVID-19. This is collaboration between the Government of Jamaica and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica,” said Lorne.