In the wake of Covid-19, restaurants in Manhattan’s Chinatown are trying to go digital

In Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood, just 38 percent of businesses have a digital presence. That’s roughly half of the internet visibility that West Village storefronts have, and it’s part of the reason that Chinatown restaurants have suffered particularly high financial losses during Covid-19 shutdowns. Many eateries eschew delivery services, making takeout inaccessible to the Seamless crowd, and some maintain only paper records, making it hard to secure small business loans. In the wake of the city’s first coronavirus wave, a younger generation—usually the children of shop owners—are pushing their parents to set up online stores, contract with GrubHub, and market their goods to non-residents. This effort has been far from frictionless, but may be an ongoing, necessary conversation if our pandemic state becomes the norm. The New York Times reports.