"Nobody feels sorry for it" Why catering has become a victim of the pandemic in Russia

As you know, one of the most memorable events of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum was the emotional speech of the owner of the Anderson cafe chain Anastasia Tatulova, who harshly criticized the actions of the authorities in supporting small and medium-sized businesses, stating that business needs profitability and security most of all, and “less all forums". According to Tatulova, there is a gap between the government agencies in charge of small and medium-sized businesses and the entrepreneurs themselves in understanding what the business needs: “The main request of entrepreneurs - there are only two of them in fact - is profitability and safety. The entrepreneur doesn't need anything else. Least of all he needs forums. " These concepts, according to her, are not present in any of the existing development strategies. “There is anything: digitalization, acceleration, generation, sandbox. Only these two words are missing: "safety" and "efficiency".

She noted that there is no real expert team in the country that understands what small and medium-sized businesses are. And existing expert councils often remove entrepreneurs from their membership if they say inconvenient things. "That's when we are ready to listen to feedback, when we are ready to take these inconvenient things into work - only then everything will go to us", Tatulova said. The businessman also noted that every "state gesture" towards business entities ultimately ends with the complication of the work of conscientious market participants and the transition of companies to the shadows.

However, the country's authorities did not heed this bright speech, and continue to bend their line. A ban on visiting cafes and restaurants for unvaccinated Russians from the same opera...

Why is this happening, including in the first place, in the field of public catering? Publicist Mikhail Makogon has a reasoned answer to this question, which he outlined in his blog:

“The question may arise: why has catering been paying for everyone for a year already? Why was he appointed a capitalist subbotnik at his own expense in the fight against coronavirus?

Subways, airplanes, trains, offices, construction sites, assembly lines, whole neighborhoods filled with meaningless civil servants - all this, with a very short break in April-May last year, worked as it did. But each wave of the virus brings repression to the service sector, this is already so common that it is perceived as a standard: just close the bars.

There is an answer. The repression of the service industry is rooted in the same root as its success.

The main reason for the fact that the service sector, at least in large cities, primarily in Moscow and St. Petersburg, is at least not inferior, and somewhere far superior to the world capitals, the incredible flourishing of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, gastropubs, barbershops, clubs for every taste - this whole area has never been of interest to the state.

This is, just like Russian IT in the 90s-00s, the answer to the question: what can a Russian person do if they do not permanently humiliate them, do not beat their hands, do not take property and do not drive them to the GULAG.

It seems to me that on the fingers of one hand there will be cities that are able to compete with Moscow and St. Petersburg in the concentration of the most sophisticated leisure, the most niche culture, the most interesting food and drink per square meter of city square.

Moreover, it all developed at a breakneck speed right before our eyes. Today, it's not enough just to feed deliciously, everyone has long been getting into steak roasting for a long time, everyone has figured out the Caesar sauce for a long time, beef and venison tartare with lingonberry sauce and duck skin chips will soon begin to be served at McDonald's. You have to dodge straight, stretch out into a string and walk the wheel so that at least someone will notice you, against the background of two dozen of the same very good establishments that opened on the same day.

The cult establishments of the 2000s, where everyone tried to bring in a foreigner, like Pushkin, today looks like just expensive canteens.

All simply because this mouse fuss is not necessary for serious state people. This business of personally kissing a client on the right buttock is very difficult, there is very little money, a lot of work and fierce competition, to live at least a five-year period, in which there is great success.

The state understands what oil and gas is, what industry is, what a large bank, mass retail retail is, and now, unfortunately, understands what telecommunications is.

A boutique hotel, a barbershop, a stand-up club, a gastro-bar - all of this is in the category of petty speculation, the attitude to which ranges from the consumer, designed to serve the bosses, to the indifferent and contemptuous. From which there is much more screeching (requests, complaints, demands, whining) than wool (this is not Sberbank, which forms almost a tenth of the Moscow budget with one income tax).

It is this state of affairs that has provided the service industry with such incredible success. Because it is far beyond the radar of serious people and effective managers who are engaged in the struggle for supremacy in the supply of pipes for the next flow to nowhere or in the division of contracts for renovation.

The reverse side of the phenomenon that ensured success - no one pity them. It is possible to smash harmlessly, but indicatively, without affecting the interests of any significant persons.

Therefore, branches and offices of Sberbank, Alfa and VTB, assembly lines of KamAZ and GAZ will operate, construction projects will go on and the crowded Pobeda will fly, Russian Railways trains will ride, prepaid city events will take place, because the contractors of Alye Parus are the right contractors.

And only the owner of “Anderson” Tatulov will say about catering at the next forum, the weight of her words in the real world would not be lower if the speaker was pumped with helium..."