Takamori vs. Corona virus
As for many towns in Japan, Takamori wants to do everything it can not to « lose against the Coronas virus ».
In order to help the restaurants during these difficult times, the town hall came up with the following idea:
Every day, the town hall orders bento boxes from the participating restaurants for 800yen per box. The town pays 300yen, and the bento are sold to the customers for 500yen.
The restaurants bring their freshly made bento boxes to the town hall at around 10am. Town hall workers then prepare all the boxes (printing tags with the ingredients for instance), before taxis come to pick up the bento and bring about 60% of them to companies that made reservations earlier in the morning. The remaining 40%ish are then sold to customers directly at the town hall to limit exposure.
Even though by being careful for a month or so the virus cases are now back to 0 in the area, people are still keeping their distance and checking their temperature to make sure it stays that way.
Because the restaurant business is really slowed down at the moment, this ensures a steady business for the shops without having to take risks with allowing customers to eat in, and because the town pays for more than a third of the bento box, the customers can enjoy a good fresh meal for a cheap price. The taxis' services are paid for by the town hall as well, which is also a good help for them as they don't have a lot of customers either at the moment.
The restaurant workers have said to be very happy with this system, and the only issue the town hall is facing is having to see disappointed customers when the bento boxes sell out. But they usually assure us that they will be back the next day a wee bit earlier to grab one!
This will keep going for the whole month of February, and possibly longer if things don’t get better by then.
I personally think that this is a great idea, and I’m very happy to be a part of this project. The only reason why the bento boxes sell out so fast is that Takamori’s inhabitants come to the town hall to buy boxes every day as a way to support the restaurants and the town. It’s very heartwarming to see everyone working together!