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Beer garden in Baden-Württemberg: Summer hardly brought any relief
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / DPA
The gastronomy in Germany has lost massive sales since the beginning of the corona crisis in spring.
Between March and August, restaurants, cafes, caterers and bars took in price-adjusted 40.5 percent less money than in the same period last year, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Monday.
In the shutdown month of April, the sales losses were the strongest with a minus of 68 percent.
With the opening in May, business recovered continuously.
In August the drop in sales was still a good 22 percent, according to the Wiesbaden statisticians.
In view of curfew and contact restrictions in corona hotspots to contain the pandemic, new challenges are now facing the catering industry.
Within the industry, bars that earn their living by serving drinks were particularly hard hit: there, for example in pubs and bars, sales fell by more than 45 percent from March to August compared to the same period last year.
Restaurants, pubs and snack bars, on the other hand, were able to make up some ground with delivery services and home sales and lost about 29 percent of the proceeds.
The slump in sales led to substantial job cuts in the catering industry, which recently employed around 1.8 million people.
Employment from March to August was around a sixth below the previous year's level (minus 17.6 percent).
In the meantime, the bad business did not make itself felt in the number of bankruptcies.
The statisticians attribute this to the suspension of the obligation to file for bankruptcy since March.
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mik / dpa
