DETROIT – With little government assistance, nearly 110,000 restaurants in the United States have closed in 2020.
According to the National Restaurant Association, 83% of restaurants owners expect sales to decline over winter and 37% believe they’ll be able to remain open in six months without government help.
The European Central Bank decided Thursday to increase its stimulus by $600 billion, bringing the total to $2.2 trillion to help keep businesses and workers afloat.
The U.S. issued $1,200 stimulus checks eight months ago.
In lieu of government assistance, one Metro Detroit business owner is trying to help his customers with the help of carry-out customers.
The history of Shield’s Pizza dates back to Prohibition, when an entire pizza cost $1.10. Since then, the three-restaurant family business, which has survived so much, is doing everything it can to keep from becoming history.
That’s where Atlas Wholesale Food company comes in. If you eat at Kerby’s Coney Island, or National or Lafayette Coney, if you love Lou’s Deli or Detroit Wing Company or Kalmata Grill -- the raw ingredients for that food you love comes from Atlas. It’s a critical cog in the food supply chain and, for the next two weeks, you can participate in the #RescueMIRestaurant campaign to keep your favorites in business.
The program is simple:
- Support your favorite local restaurant by ordering carryout or delivery.
- Take a photo of the receipt, post it publicly on Facebook with the hashtag #RescueMIRestaurant. All posts must properly tag the correlating restaurant, list the date of the order and total amount, including tax and tip.
- Upon seeing the post, Atlas will match, dollar for dollar, the total amount of the receipt to the restaurant in the form of a product credit. For example, if a customer spends $100, that restaurant receives twice the profit in the form of $100 in supplies, at no cost, from Atlas.
- The program runs Dec. 7- Dec. 25 and Atlas will support up to $100,000 in total.
You can find ClickOnDetroit’s continually updated list of resources that assist food service workers here.
Watch the video above for the full report.