KRQE poll shows how customers feel about dining-in restaurants, bars during pandemic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Restaurants and bars are counting down the days until they can have customers inside again. KRQE put out a poll to see how the public feels about dining-in again.

The poll got thousands of responses and shows people are pretty divided on when restaurants should be allowed to have customers inside and when they’d feel comfortable enough to go. “We would feel comfortable going in a restaurant. We feel like they’d take proper precautions in sanitizing the area,” Kurt Sorensen, in Albuquerque, said.

“I think we would need to come up with a vaccine before I feel comfortable going into a restaurant and eating,” Gilbert Garcia, in Albuquerque, said. “We’re not using a face mask when we’re eating, so those droplets are still coming around.”

When asked when restaurants should re-open for dine-in service, over 40% of respondents said ‘now.’ Another over 30% said restaurants should open on June 1 or June 15.

People who said they were ready for restaurants to open to full service now do expect safety precautions to be put in place. “Cleaning and sanitizing of all the different services. Like I said, limited capacity, 50% or less if possible and definitely spacing at least six feet apart,” Tiffany Munoz, in Albuquerque, said.

When it comes to bars and pubs, just under 40% of respondents said they should be open for full service now. But when asked if people would go to a bar if opened now, just over 45% of respondents said they would go in. About 60% of people said they would not feel comfortable enough to go in a bar right now.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state is on track for restaurants and bars to allow customers inside on June 1, 2020. But, she added there is no guarantee and that the decision would be made based on data.