Surabaya - The implementation of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) has been extended until the end of July 2021. For cafe and restaurant businesses, this policy extends the "test period" for them because the decline in turnover has not only been experienced since the PPKM policy took effect at the beginning of last July.
Quoting the opinion of the Chairman of East Java Apkrindo Tjahjono Haryono, the decline in culinary business turnover reached 10 percent - 15 percent since H-4 of the implementation of PPKM, and during the implementation of PPKM the decline in turnover reached 50 to 60% (bisnis.com, 2021).
The PPKM policy which has an impact on culinary business turnover requires micro and small scale traders to immediately adapt considering that they must still fulfill their responsibilities to their families. It cannot be denied that the Covid-19 pandemic has presented new needs such as masks, hand sanitizer, various vitamins and supplements to maintain body immunity and even internet quota due to the shift in their children's schools from offline to online. Switching to online sales by utilizing a delivery service application is one of the ideal options chosen by many entrepreneurs, including micro and small scale culinary traders, because this option bridges the meeting of buyers' requests and their offers without having to meet physically. However, even though delivery service application technology is considered the best option for maintaining business continuity in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it needs to be understood that the use of this technology is not necessarily always as well received as traders selling their culinary products conventionally.
Referring to research conducted by the author on 302 micro and small scale culinary entrepreneurs spread across 39 culinary tourism areas in the city of Surabaya using the UTAUT 2 model approach from Venkatesh, et al (2012). The research was conducted in the 3rd month since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early March 2020, with the hope of exploring the experiences of micro and small scale culinary entrepreneurs using food delivery service applications.
Even though this research was conducted in 2020, the results of this research are still relevant to use as a basis for evaluation for various parties who care about micro and small scale culinary traders so that they can survive in the business they run even though they are tested during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The results of respondents' answers state that there is a strong intention from micro and small scale culinary traders to continue using food delivery service applications because it is based on the hope of the benefits they will achieve, ease of use. However, social support and facilitating conditions are not enough to encourage culinary traders' intentions to continue using this technology.
The social support that is felt to be lacking is support from external sources, namely the management of culinary tourism areas and food delivery service application providers. Based on the results of respondents' answers, it was revealed that culinary traders who had just joined as partners (merchants) of food delivery service applications felt a lack of assistance from food delivery service application providers. As new users (early majority) with various educational backgrounds and ages, they really need technical education and product knowledge in order to maximize the features contained in the application.
Although there is a community group of partners (merchants) of the food delivery service application and traders are free to join. In this group, members are free to ask questions or share "best practice" experiences using food delivery service applications, but they are not maximizing the group. So far, they choose to ask their family or fellow traders if they encounter technical problems or don't understand a feature of the application.
The lack of support from culinary tourism area management felt by traders is closely related to the condition of the facilities.
Even though the management of the culinary tourism area has facilitated it by collaborating with delivery service application providers which are currently very popular with the public, what they complain about is the existence of WIFI facilities in the culinary tourism area. Often the internet in Culinary Tourism Areas is unstable and this is felt to be quite disruptive to business operations, especially when orders are high. The impact of these technical problems is that there is a backlog of orders that must be fulfilled and this is prone to causing miscommunication with the couriers who deliver the food. The solution that has been implemented so far is that the majority of micro and small scale culinary traders work around this by spending money to buy internet quota to avoid a backlog of orders.
The final part of the research results states that although traders feel the benefits and convenience and are provided with supportive facilities, this is not enough to encourage them to continue using the food delivery service application in the long term.
As a result of direct interviews with culinary traders, information was obtained that they still had concerns about the additional costs they would incur, while these additional costs were felt to be quite heavy for them during a pandemic like the current one.
Concerns regarding costs are very reasonable according to Hew, et al (2015) that for early followers of a technology, benefits, time and costs are factors to consider. Apart from that, they also feel that the turnover obtained after using food delivery applications during the Covid pandemic -19 still doesn't match their expectations. This is related to the opinion of Tjahjono as Chairman of Apkrindo Jatim (Bisnis.com, 2021) that learning from the experience of the 2020 PSBB, it still takes at least 3 months after the restrictions to be able to revive the plummeting turnover.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The benefits and ease of use of food delivery service application technology are very useful for micro and small scale culinary traders, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, however there are still doubts about using it in the long term. Therefore, education for micro and small scale culinary traders, especially those who have just joined as partners (merchants), is very necessary. For companies providing food delivery service applications, it is recommended to intensify training to improve skills and knowledge of the application features, especially for the early followers (early majority).
It is recommended for partner community managers (merchants) to reach out to partners who are early followers (early majority) by opening communication facilities that can reduce their reluctance to express their aspirations or difficulties they are experiencing. The members of this community are limitless, ranging from cafe and restaurant entrepreneurs to street vendors. On the one hand, this heterogeneity of members creates gaps in communication. It is recommended that posts in community groups or communications be built using language or terms that are easily understood by the early majority.
In an effort to support traders in culinary tourism areas to be able to access the internet smoothly, the management of culinary tourism areas certainly cannot work alone, what is needed is synergy with the government and telecommunications companies so that the quality and reach of telecommunications infrastructure can be improved in the culinary tourism areas they manage. (Wahyudi)
