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by Tiziana Di Giovannandrea 17 May 2020 To share the vast majority of managers is the desire to reopen from 18 May, after two months of detention due to the Coronavirus pandemic. What is clear to everyone is that it will not be a full-scale restart. 

In a survey carried out by the Fipe Studies Office , the Italian Federation of Public Exercises-Confcommercio, about 70% of public exercises, 7 out of 10, 196 thousand bars and restaurants, are ready to raise the shutters already starting from Monday 18 May and they will be ready to welcome customers with the new anti-Covid-19 rules. About 83,000 managers will remain closed either because the owner believes that there are no conditions for resuming work or because the manager has not yet organized.

Even if there are some uncertainties, bars and restaurants are preparing for the reopening, reorganizing in these hours the spaces inside the premises and the staff shifts. For everyone, the main concern is that of customer and employee safety . 

In fact, 95% of the entrepreneurs interviewed have already purchased the masks for their staff, 82% of the restaurateurs are convinced that the use of protective devices is essential, while 94% have already sanitized the premises.

What does not convince the entrepreneurs of the restaurant at all, however, are the dividing barriers in plexiglass . 56% of the interviewees exclude any use hypothesis, 37% hypothesize their use at the cash desk and just under 5% plan to install them between the tables.

Fipe also launches an employment alarm : the entrepreneurs interviewed by Fipe estimate a collapse of 55% of their turnover at the end of the year and this will result in less staff, starting from tomorrow. In fact, according to estimates, the number of employees employed will drop by 40%, with 377 thousand jobs at risk.

Confcommercio highlights that as of May 18, a total of approximately 800,000 commercial and service companies will be able to raise the shutter. This is approximately 68.1% of the over 1.2 million existing.

The real unknown is considered the access of customers in the activities that reopen. Confcommercio's delegate for commercial policies, Enrico Postacchini, underlines how the companies that reopen on May 18 expect: "At the beginning only 30% of the turnover compared to the same period last year to reach the end of the year to about 50%. Tomorrow the activities considered non-essential will open. There will be no queues. The theme will be how to financially support the sector ". 

On security in the reopening Luciano Sbraga, director of the Centro Studi Fipe, notes: "People are scared. We must work to reassure customers. Activities will be absolutely safe". 

A fear of the effects of the restart for consumers also comes from Codacons, who speaks of a risk of € 536 per year per family for Covid costs related to sanitisations and the distancing that effectively limits customer access. Hence the appeal to traders not to discharge these costs on prices.