I visited a friend today, owner of a small chain of restaurants in Tokyo. He told me that although there had been no orders to shut his restaurants he had done so voluntarily. Out of a sense of duty his staff still went to work: operating as a take out only. But the cleverest...

...thing was how he kept ordering from his suppliers: the food he had no use for was put out in crates and sold to the public at supermarket prices. Because restaurants have high quality raw ingredients, it sold well. No food wastage, no farmers losing business and a tidy profit.

This is what human scaled businesses can do: turn a handicapp into an opportunity. Not so much mega chains. My friend went from a few small restaurants to operating a few green grocers and take out food services in less than 12 hours without a word from government.