Larger community logistics planning is needed to help local businesses survive protracted COVID-19 infection curve

CDC / Michigan Medicine COVID-19 "Flattening the Curve" diagram — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advocated measures intended to protract the length of time over which COVID-19 infections spread, as a means of keeping new cases from overwhelming US health system. © 2020 Michigan Medicine (used with permission to Saline Journal), All Rights Reserved. USA

On Monday, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an Executive Order that closed numerous “places of public accommodation” in support of “precautions to mitigate potential transmission of COVID-19, including social distancing.” [1-8]

Although its restrictions are set to expire on March 30, an increasing number of experts believe such measures will need to remain in place much longer. Much, much longer. [9]

As somewhat of an offset, Executive Order 2020-9 “does not restrict a place of business from offering food and beverage using delivery service, window service, walk-up service, drive-through service, or drive-up service.

Places of public accommodation are encouraged to do so and use precautions to mitigate potential transmission of COVID-19, including social distancing. Restaurants may allow five people inside at a time to pick up orders, so long as they stay six feet apart from each other.

Broadly considered, two models may serve as reference. McDonald’s, though far from the first, offers drive-thru option for picking up meal orders. And for delivery, pizza, and, often more particularly, our Ypsilanti neighbor-founded Domino’s commands a great deal of mindshare — although in its case, no longer coming with its once-famous 30-minute guarantee. [10-15]

A number of Saline-based restaurants and purveyors of adult beverages have taken steps to stay maintain some degree of trade by adapting their business models from largely if not exclusively dine-in-only offerings. Some have come out of the gate stronger than others; all we’ve seen, enthusiastically cheered with voice of the need to “Support our local businesses!”

In order for novelty to be replaced by habit, short-term fix to become long-term system, they’re going to have to overcome the same challenges long-ago won by fast food and pizza franchises.

Dishwashing turns will give way to the acquisition and management of disposable containers.
Order-to-plating workflows will need to be adapted and controlled to ensure taste, consistency, and more tightly timed placement of purchases into customers’ hands.

The Saline McDonald’s is located on East Michigan Avenue across from the Faurecia plant. Eight minutes on US-12 toward Ypsilanti, there’s another. Or head north toward Michigan Stadium for eleven minutes, and you’ll find an additional option just before I-94. The one on State Road appears to be a little closer.

In other words, McDonald’s has strategically sited its locations based on an understanding of, among other things, how far customers are willing to travel for a Big Mac, fries, and Coca-Cola, and just how long the foregoing will remain delectable before consumption.

And after that, they’ll have to now be good with handling the discard of packaging with which, as dine-in patrons, they at least had the option of remaining blissfully unaware.

As for delivery, pizza has inherent advantages of having delivery time baked-in to customer expectation of taste and temperature; the limited number of pie sizes additionally allow pizzerias the opportunity to set their drivers with reusable sleeves and other means of keeping food hot through transit.

Time will tell how much and for how long customers will accept anything less than that which attracted them to their favorite establishments in the first place.

Such considerations, of course, must include loss of the intangible, valuable communal aspects of “eating out.”

Four years ago, municipal government saw the value of doing its part to do what it could in removing and reducing obstacles to efficiences that can help offset challenges above with the Michigan Avenue reconstruction project. Specifically, established side streets were temporarily re-designated one-way in support of smoothing traffic flow. [16]

Two years ago, transportation industry leaders argued that perpetual songs of woe about downtown parking limitations would not be best solved by following the old paradigm of looking for ways to add more spaces. Rather, the solution was to eliminate spaces; replace them with more numerous, dedicated drop-off points. [17]

Application of these two established ways of thinking could serve as one way to give local downtown restaurants and bars the advantage they need in terms of long-term efficiencies they’ll need to stay in business by accomodating customer pickups.

For example, eliminate parking all along the south side of the east Municipal Lot between North Ann Arbor and Hall, and close Hall Street through traffic. Then set up a route through this space, dedicated to pickups for Dan’s Tavern and The Cheese Shop. [18-20]

More elaborately, the southwest downtown Municipal Lot could be closed entirely, with dedicated tents erected per business to facilitate food and beverage pickups. Customer vehicles would be routed into the circuit through the entrance off of West Michigan Avenue near Benny’s Bakery, departing either onto westbound Henry Street — which would remain open — or eastbound Henry, which would be closed to through traffic to the stop sign, along with South Ann Arbor Street from Henry to Michigan Avenue (in order to support Mac’s). [21,22]

Depending upon rate of COVID-19 spread and number of (likely) extensions to Executive Order 2020-9, additional businesses might work end up working with the City of Saline to set up similarly valuable means of making appropriately socially-distant deliveries of purchases to cars. Think Busch’s for groceries, Jensen’s Pharmacy for medications.

While it is nice to think that customers will go out of their way to support local businesses in times of need such as this, the path to long-term success invariably requires businesses to go above and beyond to make it as convenient as possible for customers and prospects to transact with them.

Presently, that appears to be calling for larger community logistics partnerships and coordinations to make that happen.

References