INSIDE: DEAR ABBY, HOROSCOPE, PUZZLES & FEATURES
C1
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2021
bendbulletin.com/business
After COVID-19 | Central Oregon
PERMANENT
CHANGES?
Restaurants adapt
to virus restrictions
BY SUZANNE ROIG
The Bulletin
W
hen government
mandates forced
restaurants to close
dining-in options to
combat the spread
of COVID-19, El Sancho Taco Shop had
to incorporate an online option for cus-
tomers to order food.
When Sparrow Bakery, a mostly grab
and go kind of business, had to find a
way to offset the losses incurred from the
lack of wholesale pastry sales, it turned
to delivery service for customers.
COVID-19, and the related closures
imposed since last March, has forced
many restaurants to reimagine their
business model by tapping into their
entrepreneurial thinking to reach cus-
tomers.
“They had to adapt it (COVID-19 re-
strictions) to their business model,” said
Todd Montgomery, Oregon State Uni-
versity-Cascades Hospitality Manage-
ment program executive in residence.
“Overnight businesses had to adopt
technology to survive.”
Whenever Central Oregon over-
comes the coronavirus, what’s certain
is that many of these survival methods
for restaurants and bars will become the
norm, Montgomery said. It all depends
on the comfort level of customers going
forward as to what a dining-in experi-
ence will look like. What’s certain is the
restaurant landscape in Central Oregon
will change. Competitors will come and
go. Dining options and menu offerings
will change, Montgomery said.
The losers, however, will be the en-
try-level jobs lost from the adoption
of more technology. Online ordering
requires fewer workers. Streamlining
workplaces mean fewer workers, he said.
“It’s a trend that’s been happening for
10 years now and COVID-19 has accel-
erated it,” Montgomery said. “Businesses
will be more efficient.”
At Ariana Restaurant on NW Galves-
ton Avenue, the owners have established
outdoor dining in a greenhouse or a tent
to meet the restrictions. Reservations are
made online for one of these four seating
arrangements.
Since mid-March Oregon restaurants
have been shut down for dining-in ser-
vice twice. The first was in March at the
start of the pandemic. The second was
in mid-November when the governor
imposed a two-week freeze on activi-
ties and later extended it in counties that
were in the extreme risk category, which
bans indoor dining, encourages takeout,
and limits how many people can gather.
See Restaurants / C8
Jackalope’s outdoor courtyard is decorated
for Valentine’s Day to welcome diners.
Ida Alul and Ed Boyle stay warm dining at their
adjustable fire table in Jackalope’s courtyard.
Photos by Barb Gonzalez/
for The Bulletin
In-demand computer chips are the ball bearings of today
P
art of the Allied strat-
egy to cripple the Ger-
man war machine in
World War II was to destroy
ball-bearing plants. Why? Be-
cause they were used in virtu-
ally anything that moved, such
as tanks, submarines, ships,
airplanes, machine guns and
trucks. Massive bombing raids,
with heavy losses, were aimed
at German ball-bearing facto-
ries, which seriously disrupted
their production and may have
shortened the war.
EDGE
OF TECH
By Preston Callicott
Today, the ball bearing
equivalent is the computer
chip, and a tight supply is
causing major market disrup-
tions. This cycle, known as
a “chip famine” in chip-tech,
regularly occurs about every
four years from normal sup-
ply-and-demand fluctuations.
Add in regional conflicts and
COVID-19, and we have a
recipe for a major worldwide
economic disruption, as is hap-
pening now.
Consumer demand
is way up
Thanks to increased demand
for home-based tech products
and too many of us shifting
work from offices to homes de-
mand quickly outstripped sup-
ply. For example, Peloton’s sales
increased more than 172% last
year. Demand for everything
for desktops, laptops, tablets,
webcams, microphones, gym-
tech, kitchen appliances and
entertainment devices has led
to the shortage.
For example, a webcam’s
smarts have come a long way
in the last five years. Webcams
can process HD and, in some
cases 4k, video. Some include
enhancement tools and filters.
A few, such as Ring doorbells,
also have facial recognition. All
these advancements require
more sophisticated video pro-
cessing, memory and power
management chips. The num-
ber of available chip factories
have not kept up with demand
and many have maxed out pro-
duction capability.
Auto industry may lose
$61 billion in sales
In the last month, auto man-
ufacturers are revising their
vehicle production projections
due to a lack of computer chips.
Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota,
Volkswagen, Subaru, Honda,
Audi and Nissan have all had to
slow production or idle plants.
A recent report by Bloomberg
estimates the auto industry
could lose over $61 billion in
sales if the COVID-19 pan-
demic continues.
Computer chips now con-
trol virtually all features and
functions in a car, including
fuel injection, transmission,
engine, audio/video, steering
and brakes.
See Preston / C8