#Omicron surge steals Christmas from NYC stores, restaurants

The surging Omicron variant is emerging as the Grinch who stole Christmas from Big Apple stores and restaurants that were counting on the holiday season to help them rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Over the weekend, we didn’t have as many people in coming as we usually do Christmas season,” a worker at Saks Fifth Avenue said Wednesday.

“Our customers are getting omicron instead of buying a Dior bag.”

During the afternoon, about 40 people were checking out the famed department store’s iconic Christmas-themed window displays — while 25 others were lined up across the street to get tested for the coronavirus.

Restaurant owners are especially worried that the surge in new coronavirus cases — which Wednesday hit a record, statewide high of 28,924 — will wind up putting a fork in their businesses.

“I’ve lost over 50 percent of my reservations. Maybe even more. So the revenue loss is at least 50 percent,” lamented Domenic Sacramone, owner of Sac’s Place in Astoria, Queens.

“It started hitting us last Thursday. Some are big reservations — parties of 11, parties of seven.”

Sacramone said that “it’s like a three-tier situation going on.”

“One, people are scared and they are canceling their reservations. Two, people have either been exposed or someone in their party has gotten sick,” he said.

“The third reason is people are traveling this Christmas and they don’t want to ruin their Christmas plans. So they aren’t going out.”

Data compiled by the online OpenTable reservation company showed the total number of people eating at city restaurants that use its service fell by nearly 60 percent on Monday and Tuesday, compared to the same days in 2019 before the pandemic hit.

Cancellations galore

The grim statistics came after two days of smaller declines — 32 percent on Saturday and 38 percent on Sunday — that followed Friday’s announcement that a then-record 21,027 New Yorkers had tested positive for COVID-19.

Andrew Rigie of the New York City Hospitality Alliance said he heard from one restaurant owner who said holiday receipts were down by a crushing 60 percent.

“All types of restaurants have been impacted. Corporate parties have been canceled, friends and family have canceled their reservations and it couldn’t have come at a worse time,” he said.

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“Usually, this is a time when they make more money and pay off debt. But all the canceled reservations are just a gut punch — it makes it tough.”

A manager at the celebrity-favored Balthazar French restaurant in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood said between 15 and 20 reservations had been canceled “per day over the past week.

At the Italian restaurant Carbone in Greenwich Village — where tables are so hard to come by that the New Yorker magazine recently published a “how-to” article — a waiter said, “People are canceling reservations booked months ago.”

In addition to the numerous no-shows, many restaurants are coping with staff shortages caused by workers who’ve called out sick with the coronavirus — a problem that’s only compounded by the long waits for testing and results at some sites.

“We are short in staff — everyone is getting COVID — so we can’t accommodate outdoor seating, only indoor,” said a worker at Soho’s trendy Lure Fishbar.

Disappointed tourists

And while some popular tourist attractions were still packed, including the LEGO store in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center, where shoppers were lined up around the block, many visitors to the Big Apple said their trips weren’t going quite as planned.

Retiree Dawn Nook of Gloucester, England, said she and hubby Paul Nook arrived on the Queen Mary 2 ocean liner, which docked in Brooklyn on Monday for the first time in nearly two years.

Nook said they were “happy to wear the masks” after last visiting the city 10 years ago — but disappointed to learn how much havoc COVID-19 was wreaking on cherished Yuletide traditions.

“We had tickets to ‘The Nutcracker’ and it’s canceled. It’s such a shame,” she said.

”I was looking forward to the ballet, what a damper.”

Jean Torres of North Carolina said he, wife Ruth Torres and their son Jeanpaul, 11, had a similar experience.

“We wanted to get tickets to see Aladdin, and the show was canceled,” he said.

In addition to “Aladdin,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Hamilton” is closed through Christmas and Alanis Morrisette’s “Jagged Little Pill” closed Monday after “multiple” cast and crew members tested positive for the coronavirus.

Torres said he was worried about the possibility of his family catching COVID-19 during their Christmas getaway.

“We went to the Statue of Liberty yesterday, and we were packed in like sardines,” he said.

“I’m concerned because in some places, like in the subway or Macy’s and the ice-skating rink, there isn’t social distancing. When I saw all the people ice skating at the rink, we skipped.”