Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

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storewanderer
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Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by storewanderer »

Today I went into Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, CA (Sacramento). The mall is in horrible shape with more vacant stores than open stores. The food court and anything selling food was 100% closed. You literally could not buy any food or drink in this mall even if you wanted it- except for See's Candy. Vending machines near the entry for Pepsi products were completely empty and a candy/chip machine had just a few rows of stuff left (crackers, etc.).

Is there regulation in California that would prevent mall food courts from being open?

This food court still had all its tables and chairs set up (people were sitting at them waiting for people to shop, etc.).

There are many tenants that still appear to be in business as they have menus, signs, and cash register equipment present. The Subway and Taco Bell both had their POS Systems turned on (the Taco Bell's self order kiosk was actually functioning even). Nobody had signs up explaining they were closed, why they were closed, etc. Just dark prep areas and no employees around.

Even if no indoor dining is allowed couldn't the mall food court be open for take out? Or do they just close it entirely if there is an indoor dining restriction?
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Re: Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

The question is how much of it was take out business to begin with? Food courts are pretty much a captive audience with the overwhelming majority of customers eating their food right there. And most malls are usually surrounded by many free standing restaurants which are likely much more convenient than having to deal with the hassle of getting in and out of the mall which in most instances is not a pleasant experience traffic-wise.
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Re: Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by babs »

I was at Lloyd Center in Portland last week. Food court was down to two open restaurants, both with long lines. The rest were closed with much of their equipment still in place. At the washington square mall, most places are still open. But Taco Time has been closed since the pandemic started yet all their equipment is still there.
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Re: Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by reymann »

i'm wondering how many shopping malls will be closed post covid for real estate or redevelopment in the next few years. manchester center's food court in fresno is bare and there are talks about demolishing the indoor mall.
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Re: Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by SamSpade »

@babs, I haven't seen Bridge City Cafe reopen any of their mall locations, just the one on SW 3rd (which, considering, is kind of surprising itself). Thanks for the update on Lloyd Center. :? The delicious Indian place at Washington Square was on delivery services ahead of the pandemic, but I haven't recently checked.

Announced this morning, and for the next 4 weeks, statewide in Washington food court restaurants are pretty much out of luck. I wonder how this will work out in Bellevue Square, which has some fast options, but no traditional food court. (I suppose this would apply to the new "dining hall" though)
Retail stores, including grocery stores, and malls must limit occupancy to 25% and must close food court seating.
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Re: Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: November 15th, 2020, 12:19 pm @babs, I haven't seen Bridge City Cafe reopen any of their mall locations, just the one on SW 3rd (which, considering, is kind of surprising itself). Thanks for the update on Lloyd Center. :? The delicious Indian place at Washington Square was on delivery services ahead of the pandemic, but I haven't recently checked.

Announced this morning, and for the next 4 weeks, statewide in Washington food court restaurants are pretty much out of luck. I wonder how this will work out in Bellevue Square, which has some fast options, but no traditional food court. (I suppose this would apply to the new "dining hall" though)
Retail stores, including grocery stores, and malls must limit occupancy to 25% and must close food court seating.
It would appear the food court can still be open with no seating. Maybe it just isn't practical to even have the counters open under those restrictions.
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Re: Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by Alpha8472 »

Food Courts at most malls in the San Francisco Bay Area are all very inconsistent on whether they are open or not. Most counties do allow Indoor Food Courts for take out and some had indoor dining with limited capacity. Some counties have just banned indoor dining in the past few days or will ban them on or around November 17. The rates of coronavirus have gone up drastically in the past few weeks. It is probably due to the colder weather and the fact that people are staying indoors more.

Many food courts have been struggling even in the very busy malls of the San Francisco Bay Area. The food courts at popular malls were packed before the pandemic such as Hillsdale Shopping Center. Now business is drastically down. Sunvalley Mall had a terrible Food Court that was already practically empty before the pandemic. Now it is mostly closed with only 1 or 2 restaurants even bothering to open. Red Robin and McDonald's never reopened even though the mall reopened around September. Those 2 restaurants were packed and very popular before the pandemic.

Now that indoor dining is being banned in many counties in just a matter of days, many restaurants in indoor food courts are giving up. They are closing down in just the past week or so. Gyms are closing in a matter of days also. The malls will get much less customer traffic soon. Chuck E. Cheese is closed for indoor gaming again in most areas.

Contra Costa County still allows movie theaters to be open, but at limited capacity. Food and drink sales are banned. The theory is that if you are not eating, then you will be wearing a mask at all times.

The indoor food court may go extinct. Restaurants would be more successful if they moved to standalone restaurants in the mall parking lots. Restaurants with drive thru windows in mall parking lots seem to be doing very good business still. It is in the mall owner's best interest to move to outdoor restaurants or restaurants in the parking lots with drive thru lanes. Those restaurants could also do walk up windows as well. I saw a McDonalds with a makeshift walk up window. They put up a walk up window in what was a doorway to the outside.
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Re: Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by jamcool »

It used to be that you didn’t eat inside the theater....that is what the intermission was for.
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Re: Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by BillyGr »

jamcool wrote: November 16th, 2020, 5:46 am It used to be that you didn’t eat inside the theater....that is what the intermission was for.
Not sure if they still (were) doing that, but one local theater even a few years ago would allow food but not beverages in the theater itself, just in the lobby. While it seems odd, it makes sense - much easier to sweep up dropped popcorn than to clean up spilled soda in an area that is hard to access (under seating).
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Re: Mall Food Courts and Coronavirus

Post by submariner »

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