A Specialty Coffeehouse in Milan in the Time of Covid-19

How did you live the beginning of the crisis up to closure?

The first few weeks of the crisis were difficult as we had to adapt and change our service policies quite dramatically, often from one day to the next. I remember the last week of February was Fashion Week in Milan and our shop was busy with international visitors, probably our best week of the year so far. Then from one day to the next everything changed. By Tuesday of the following week virtually all of the tourists had disappeared and many of our local customers were working from home which meant that mornings were much quieter without the influx of regulars coming in on their way to the work. Still, while the drop in tourists resulted in a significant decrease in sales, it wasn’t enough to cause too much alarm at that point.

It wasn’t until two weeks later when the new ordinance required us to keep customers one metre apart that we started to see a major disruption in our business. We tried our best to make it work under the new regulations, wearing gloves, sanitizing surfaces, and encouraging customers to choose takeout. We also reduced our operating hours, opening a bit later in the mornings and staying closed on Sundays in an effort to stay well rested and reduce our stress levels. By the end of that week we decided it wasn’t worth the risk to ourselves and our customers to keep operating under these conditions so we made the difficult decision to close temporarily. It was only a couple of days later that the government ordered all non-essential businesses to cease operations so in the end it looks like we made the right choice.

How did you live the beginning of the crisis up to closure?

The first few weeks of the crisis were difficult as we had to adapt and change our service policies quite dramatically, often from one day to the next. I remember the last week of February was Fashion Week in Milan and our shop was busy with international visitors, probably our best week of the year so far. Then from one day to the next everything changed. By Tuesday of the following week virtually all of the tourists had disappeared and many of our local customers were working from home which meant that mornings were much quieter without the influx of regulars coming in on their way to the work. Still, while the drop in tourists resulted in a significant decrease in sales, it wasn’t enough to cause too much alarm at that point.

It wasn’t until two weeks later when the new ordinance required us to keep customers one metre apart that we started to see a major disruption in our business. We tried our best to make it work under the new regulations, wearing gloves, sanitizing surfaces, and encouraging customers to choose takeout. We also reduced our operating hours, opening a bit later in the mornings and staying closed on Sundays in an effort to stay well rested and reduce our stress levels. By the end of that week we decided it wasn’t worth the risk to ourselves and our customers to keep operating under these conditions so we made the difficult decision to close temporarily. It was only a couple of days later that the government ordered all non-essential businesses to cease operations so in the end it looks like we made the right choice.