I would never seek to dismiss or even downplay the anxiety and economic impact that employees might face, but the point is that the whole sector has been spiralling towards this for years, and thousands have already lost their jobs over the past few, with 'the system' still steaming on and those folks being given little to no specific support when they're on the receiving end of another CVA.
This sudden acceleration in the trend does shine a spotlight on the unsustainability of the whole commercial rental property and venture capital/fund managed/investment backed 'concepts' in retail and hospitality, especially in shopping centres. If that means that the folks at the sharp end do get some support to get through the inevitable, because the scale of the problem can no longer be ignored, then that may be a small upside.
This is part of the problem with these types of places.
They're perceived as pricey by a large proportion of the popoulation, but not special enough by another large proportion to be an everyday choice. There are not enough people to patronise these places say, once a month, for a special treat, when there are so many of these places vying for business. Their rents and often the locations that they operate in mean that they must be open seven days a week, often 365 days a year, so they absolutely must drive custom way beyond the special occasion. To try and do so, they're the ones who have dumped '2-4-1' type vouchers into the market for quiet time dining, which then serves to dilute the proposition when trying to charge full price at busier times.
As an aside, this is likely to be a problem with the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, too. A proportion of folks won't pay £20 on a Thursday for what was £10 on a Wednesday, so the effect is diluted.
My hope is that, at the end of this, local and more independent, privately owned and perhaps more freehold restaurants and cafes can find themselves doing far better, working on a more level playing field without the likes of Pizza Express with unsustainable institutional support covering £1.6m of debt per restaurant being (I'd argue) unfair competition down the road. They'll also employ more people per £ of spend (small independents almost always do) and some of those spat out by the chains find better employment with them as a result.