Faced with a slow start, cafes and restaurants are stepping up their efforts

Varied buffets, card games, shows, Karaoke, faced with a shy start, cafes and restaurants are not lacking in ideas to attract customers, ten days before the end of the month of Ramadan.

After two years of closure following the coronavirus crisis, restaurants and cafes resumed service during the month of Ramadan by offering many F’tour formulas and many activities after breaking the fast such as card games, Karaoke or even shows and entertainment.

” This lifting of restrictive measures was like a breath of fresh air for cafe owners, but also for citizens and customers. People were missing this Ramadan atmosphere after the ftour, going out at night, drinking coffee, like before the pandemic“, had confided the president of the national Association of owners of cafes and restaurants of Morocco, Noureddine Harrak at the very beginning of the holy month, before observing an unsatisfactory number of crowds.

Indeed, the recovery of restaurateurs had a timid start. In this sense, a group of restaurant and cafe managers are seeking to overcome the problem of the decline in their transactions during Ramadan by offering their customers Ramadan Iftar offers at prices they consider attractive.

Most of these organizers do not hide their desire to attract the greatest number of families, through the application of prices between 70 and 220 dirhams, which guarantee integrated meals whose components vary according to the applicable price.

Even though they may be losers, these owners are forced to reduce the posted prices, because of the other expenses they bear. Some have seen their debts accumulate since the first confinement, others are threatened with seizure, their only way is to lower their rates.

Many cafes are betting on changing the consumption habits of families, while taking advantage of the atmosphere of the spring season, to attract the greatest number of them, and do not skimp on activities.

Professionals confirm that their number of transactions decreases by more than 70% during the month of Ramadan, compared to the rest of the year.

A large percentage of ranked restaurants in major cities such as Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech have turned to social media platforms to promote their Ramadan offers, in order to reach as many potential customers as possible.

The city of Casablanca, for example, has seen a significant increase in the number of cafes, restaurants and fast food outlets over the past three decades.

The number of cafes in the economic capital rose from about 350 cafes in 1984 to 540 cafes in 1994, before increasing considerably in the first decade of this century to settle at the level of 2,400 cafes less than six years.

The number of fast food outlets recorded an increase of nearly 700%, from 220 stores in 1974 to 300 in 1984, before increasing to 550 in 1994, to jump to 1,560 in 2006.

The financial crisis which has been hovering over purchasing power since the outbreak of the pandemic and which has recently worsened with soaring prices is not helping restaurant owners.

Indeed, it was first clearly manifested in the purchases of Moroccans to welcome the month of Ramadan, shopping where a large number of people were content with the essentials and thus renounced “gastronomic pleasures” given the increase in the prices of all these foods due to the soaring prices of raw materials.

This crisis has spread to cafes and restaurants, although the latter, especially those in the medium and high ranges, have insisted on not changing their prices despite the price increase, have not been able to prevent their customers from looking elsewhere. , opting for the inexpensive.