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One day after the city of Bangor announced a five-day 8 p.m. curfew for bars, restaurants and public gathering places as the coronavirus pandemic grows, a number of Bangor restaurants have responded by offering new takeout, delivery and curbside pickup menus, as well as special downtown parking for those customers stopping by to pick up food.
The Downtown Bangor Partnership sent out a list Tuesday morning of Bangor restaurants — including those not in downtown — that are offering limited-contact or contact-free menus for the near future. While not all of these restaurants have shut down dine-in service, the majority have.
The current list of restaurants, as well as retail establishments offering curbside service, is available on the city of Bangor’s website. The list will be updated throughout the day and in the following days, as more restaurants finalize their plans for the service. To be added to the list, business owners can fill out a form.
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“Small locally owned businesses are not set up to weather weeks without cash flow. Many can not even survive days,” said downtown Bangor coordinator Betsy Lundy, who herself formerly owned Maine Cloth Diaper Company, a small downtown Bangor business that closed in 2018. “Continuing to provide cash flow during this closure might mean the difference between them reopening their doors at the end of this or not.”
The city of Bangor has also designated special downtown parking spots specifically for curbside pickups of takeout orders. A map showing all of the parking spots available, as well as businesses with curbside pickup, is up on the city of Bangor website. Customers can park in 16 designated 15-minute pickup spots, located throughout the downtown district.
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In addition to small local businesses, many grocery stores also offer curbside pickup or delivery. Presently, in the Bangor area, the Hannaford supermarkets located on Broadway in Bangor, in Brewer and in Old Town all offer Hannaford To Go. Shaw’s Supermarket in Bangor offers grocery delivery through the website Instacart. Both Walmarts in Bangor and Brewer also offer grocery pickup and delivery through the Walmart website. Pharmacies such as Walgreens and pharmacies located in stores such as Hannaford, Shaw’s, Walmart and Target all offer prescription pickup services.
Smaller, locally owned grocers have different policies on pickup and delivery. Contact your local store to see what it is offering.
