Slow business as food court re-opens

Operations at the Food Court of Sheraton Mall have resumed after two days of “industrial cleaning”, but the first few hours did not appear to be business as usual.

Restaurants in the often bustling dining area were visibly less patronised and for the most part, owners and employees remained mute about the circumstances which led to an abrupt shutdown by health officials on Tuesday.

Very few people patronised Sheraton Mall’s food court two days after it was shut down by health officials.

“It’s like any normal Friday for us,” said an employee in the empty branch of Pizza Man Doc.

At Italia Coffee House, a supervisor, the only person in the store, told Barbados TODAY: “I can’t give any answers,” and the manager at Burger King was “unavailable”.

Another supervisor, who requested anonymity admitted that business was “a little slow”, but expressed confidence the situation would improve over the weekend.

She was disappointed with the way environmental health officials handled the matter.

“What they did on Tuesday morning could have been done in the night so that people would not have wasted all of that stock. I don’t have a problem with what they did, but how they did it. It was a wastage that did not need to happen. A day’s worth of stock just lost,” she reflected.

Most of the near two-dozen restaurants were open including major fast food outlets like Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Burger King, along with longtime restaurants like IV Play Deli.

Meanwhile some other restaurants like ‘Piggies’, ‘Yvonne’, ‘Arabian Knights’ and the ‘Sultan’ remained closed, reportedly to engage in more thorough renovations to their stalls.

Owner of IV Play Deli, Phillip Forrester acknowledged that business was slow, but said a comprehensive assessment would take weeks and should be measured in the context of a traditionally slow September period.

Forrester said the health ministry had a job to do and he was satisfied with their efforts. He also expressed confidence the 27-year-old mall would recover from the setback.

“It was what it was. The question now has to be how do we move forward from here and regain the confidence of the people who support Sheraton Mall. I believe we are doing our best to ensure that Sheraton is safe to dine…we were closed because we wanted to make Sheraton Mall safer for everyone. That is the reason,” said Forrester.

Kelly Stoute, General Manager of Sheraton Mall described the process as a ‘work in progress’ as she spoke of the  industrial cleaning under the watchful eyes of environmental officials.

Kelly Stoute, general manager of Sheraton Mall

She however acknowledged two days of dormancy at the popular food court was a big blow to the mall.

“There was definitely an impact and we have a lot of making up to do,” she said, adding that management will be looking much more closely into the affairs of their tenants to ensure such a situation is not allowed to happen again.

“We are going to communicate a lot heavier. It might sound aggressive but we need to have better dialogue. The health officials won’t usually come to the landlord, they usually go directly to the food businesses. So we will have to ensure certain procedures and compliance are in place.”

When asked if there was more to the “routine environmental challenges” than was initially reported she said: “That was it.”

Stoute then expressed her thanks to the Ministry of Health for their assistance and guidance throughout the cleaning process. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb