Help Local Businesses Survive The Crisis

What You Can Do + Who To Support

Empty Streets. Empty Shopping Malls. Empty Restaurants.

Globally, the F&B industry is being hit hard by the reduced foot traffic. Government-imposed lockdowns or social distancing have left cities looking like ghost towns.

While it's a good move to practice restricted movement and social distancing, this greatly impacts the big and small F&B businesses.

In Malaysia, the country with the highest number of infections in South East Asia, business has dropped between 30% and 40% and is expected to decline even further to about 60% and 70% during the restricted movement order period.

While governments should step in with financial aid and other policy measures, there are ways that we, as individuals, can show support for our local businesses—in a way that is safe, sensible and within our means. 

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How To Support Your Local Businesses

1. Order takeaway, pickup or delivery. We understand that not everybody can cook (or is good at cooking!) so these are great alternatives to dining in at an establishment. Many independently-owned restaurants and food businesses that haven't previously done so are now getting onto platforms that allow them to continue serving you with contactless takeaways, pickups, deliveries and payments!
2. Purchase gift cards. If you're lucky enough to be able to cook for yourself at home or prefer not to order food, purchasing gift cards to the establishments that you love is an immediate way to put cash into the business—get the cash today, use it for later.
3. Take advantage of the discounts. Some are offering incentives for first-time customers for food orders (e.g. free deliveries, a rebate on your order or something similar) or some places are giving away gift cards whose value is worth more than what you purchase!
4. Tip to show your appreciation. Consider being a little generous and tip the wait staff and delivery people since their income will drop due to a decline in sales and for the fact that they're still going out there to serve you. Tips don't help the F&B business itself but it does help the people that work for the industry and a little can go a long way for them.

Let's all do our part in helping in any way we can—big or small.

To help you and the businesses that we support, we’ve compiled a list of places that are still operating (in Google Sheets or PDF) and the various services that they offer—including special promos!