The onset of COVID-19 and the ongoing and ever-changing restrictions meant that many companies had to alter their way of doing business this year, and you might be surprised at just how inventive some firms became. Click or scroll through to see the inspiring ways businesses are continuing to stay open in the 'new normal'. 

Café culture returned in the summer in France – but it looked very different. One of the oldest cafés in Paris, the infamous Café de Flore, which used to be frequented by famous artists and writers including Pablo Picasso and Samuel Beckett, saw its customers return but not as Paris knows it. Here these two women wear face shield hats to protect themselves against infection while enjoying a coffee at this establishment in the Latin Quarter. Other French cafés took measures including spacing tables one metre (three feet) apart, asking waiters to wear face masks and replacing menus with chalkboards. 

Staying in the French capital but moving indoors, H.A.N.D. restaurant trialled the use of prototype plastic shields, known as PLEX’EAT, which can be suspended from the ceiling to protect diners. The makers of the plastic shields, which were designed by Christophe Gernigon, subsequently received an influx of orders from companies around the world.

Anyone for a giant sombrero with their Double Whopper? That’s the tactic that was used at several branches of Burger King in Germany, where diners were given a fold-up sombrero to remind them to keep their two-metre (six-foot) distance from each other. Meanwhile, an Italian branch of the fast food restaurant had another novel approach: selling a “social distancing whopper” with three times the usual amount of raw onions, which is a sure-fire way to keep people at a distance.

Offering bar-goers a drink with a difference, Fish Tales Bar & Grill in Maryland used “bumper tables” made from inflatable inner tubes on wheels to help customers keep their distance. The tables, built by a Baltimore-based company and purchased by Fish Tales Bar & Grill for $400 (£315) each, were trialled by employees and friends.

To put a stop to any fears about eating alone during the pandemic, this Washington, Virginia restaurant had a novel way to make sure customers didn't get lonely. The Inn at Little Washington filled empty chairs with mannequins dressed in 1940s clothing and make-up to help diners practice social distancing and create a memorable experience.

In early May, Thailand’s lockdown restrictions began to loosen, which included the opening of restaurants, hair salons, parks, markets and other venues. To minimise the risk of infection, many restaurants installed barriers between customers at tables, made from materials such as pipe and plastic sheeting.

One restaurant in Bangkok tried out a more novel approach: using cardboard dinosaurs to keep diners company and ensure social distancing. Bar-B-Q Plaza Restaurant, located in the Icon Siam shopping mall, placed these novelty figures at tables, complete with armholes so that they could be turned into fun costumes.

A coffee shop in Lugo, Spain took a fashion-forward tack with social distancing, populating its tables with mannequins dressed in trendy clothes. La Fundación displayed the latest trends of designer Inés Penelas, which served the dual function of helping coffee shop-goers keep their distance and filling empty chairs. 

Café Livres in Essen, Germany borrowed mannequins from a local theatre to fill its empty seats. The dolls, posing with cups of coffee and newspapers, were placed to encourage customers to keep their distance.

At Five Dock Dining in Sydney, Australia, where only 10 guests can enter at one time, owners installed cardboard cut-outs of people and play 'chatter' in the background to give the restaurant a livelier atmosphere.

Café Goga in Milan wated to allow two people to dine together, but installed Perspex screens through the centre of its tables in order to minimise the risk of customers passing germs to one another.

From 4 July the British tradition of a trip to the pub was restored – at least until the country's second lockdown – but there were conditions. Customers had to book a table in advance and provide their contact details for potential virus tracing, and groups could include no more than two households. The pub experience was a little different too. The revamped layout of this UK pub saw tables separated by plastic screens. There was no ordering drinks at the bar when it reopened, but customers could order drinks and food via an app. 

Sports fans were desperate to watch live sports after coronavirus put a stop to it, and so huge numbers of people across the world tuned in when Germany’s Bundesliga football matches kicked off in mid-May, with the league receiving a record-breaking six million-plus TV viewers. For those who wanted to get closer to the live experience, some football stadiums showed matches on large screens outside so that fans could watch from their cars.

Across the world, drive-in cinemas are gaining popularity as a novel way to watch movies while respecting social distancing. In the capital of Lithuania, organisers of the Vilnius International Film Festival partnered with the city airport to create the Autokino drive-in cinema on an airfield.

Meanwhile at Technik Museum Speyer in Germany, the car park was transformed into a drive-in movie theatre, becoming part of a growing trend. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Germany, at least 30 drive-in cinemas have opened and are frequently packed out, showing the activity is making a comeback.

Drive-in movie theatres have become hugely popular in South Korea too. In this drive-in cinema in the capital of Seoul, families park up to enjoy a movie while keeping at a safe distance from others.

At Ratmalana Airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 30 May, music fans headed to an open-air musical, an experimental initiative designed to rejuvenate the country’s entertainment industry. The concert included performances from Sri Lanka’s most popular artists and money from ticket sales was donated to the Sri Lankan President’s coronavirus fund.

In Germany coronavirus led to a trend for drive-in disco nights, which have been dubbed “autodiscos”. At this event in Thuringia, up to 250 cars were allowed into this meadow space, where pop singer Melanie Müller performed to the socially-distanced audience on 7 May.

In June, Berliner Ensemble shared an image of its reduced-capacity auditorium on Twitter, giving theatre-goers an idea of what attending performances could look like in a post-lockdown world. By removing 500 of the room’s 700 seats, the theatre group would be able to stick to Germany’s 1.5-metre (five-feet) physical distancing rules. However, at present the theatre remains closed.

At the end of Spain's national lockdown in June, the Gran Teatre del Liceu opera house put on a performance with a difference to mark the occasion. Created by the UceLi string quartet in conjunction with conceptual artist Eugenio Ampudia, the musicians played a concert to an audience of 2,292 houseplants, which was also live streamed to a human audience.

In Spain, hairdressers along with other businesses of less than 400 square metres (4,300 square feet) were allowed to open in the country on Monday 4 May, as part of the country’s lockdown restrictions easing. At this hairdresser in Seville, staff wear protective visors and customers are separated by plastic screens to reduce risk of infection. 

At the Isetan department store in Tokyo, which reopened in May with social distancing measures in place, customers can receive a manicure through a plastic screen. Other measures being used by the store include thermal imaging and hand sanitising at store entrances, compulsory wearing of masks for customers and staff, and plastic sheeting at customer service areas. 

This optician in Rotterdam in the Netherlands shows what this service looks like under the new normal: think plastic screens between customers and staff, protective masks and visors. 

Many of us have swapped business attire for loungewear while working from home, but that hasn’t stopped tailors from thinking up innovative ways to reopen safely. At this tailor's shop in Rotterdam, a tailor pins a customer’s suit through a plexiglass screen, which has been designed with holes just large enough to fit the arms through.

At this market in Altrincham, England, construction fences were used as makeshift barriers to enforce social distancing between market stall holders and customers.

A far cry from the busy, chaotic atmosphere you might usually associate with a street market, in Surabaya, Indonesia vendors practice social distancing via a simple grid system drawn on the ground. 

In the UK, supermarkets have installed screens between self-checkouts, while features including masks, cashless payment and frequent disinfection of surfaces are all here to stay.

Customers were eager to get back to IKEA when several stores reopened in the UK on 1 June, with queues forming around car parks at many locations. Inside the store, staff wore plastic visors and customers were advised to use sanitising stations upon entry.

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It turns out many activities can be carried out through a clear screen, one of which is banking. In this bank at a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, workers in face masks serve customers through a plastic screen to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Many organisations have become quite creative with their use of space during lockdown – just look at the residents of Worcester, Massachusetts who turned Auburn High football field into a venue for their town hall meeting on 2 June.

Professional athletes and sports teams around the world began to resume their training over the summer, such as this cycling team in Baku, Azerbaijan, who are pictured  practising social distancing before a session. Many have also chosen to wear masks to lower the risk of infection while training.

Fitness fanatics had to adapt their routines and work out from home during lockdown, yet many were keen to go back to the gym. At John Reed Fitness in Berlin, which opened its doors on 2 June, gym-goers must keep to a minimum distance of three metres (10 feet) between each other when visiting, and buildings must provide sufficient ventilation. 

A branch of the David Lloyd gym chain in Essex, England took a different tack, moving classes and equipment into its outside space to prepare for reopening. In England for several months over the summer, groups of up to six people were allowed to meet outdoors, as long as they kept two metres (six feet) apart from those who didn't live in their household.

For fitness fanatics, training outdoors might be the new normal but is often at the mercy of the weather. However, these outdoor yoga pods at Hotel X in Toronto, Canada, can be used come rain or shine. In fact, such creative methods could be here to stay, especially if they mean that you can exercise in the open all year round.

When domestic travel in Thailand began to pick up again, transport services altered their procedures to ensure social distancing. In this near-empty airport lounge at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, ticks and crosses indicate where passengers can sit.

In the summer, the number of international flights on offer increased, but many airports such as El Dorado in Bogota, Colombia, employed temperature-checking technology to monitor passengers' health. This kind of precaution is set to be in place for the foreseeable future.

It’s Disneyland, but not as you knew it. On 11 May, Disneyland Shanghai reopened with new features: markers were painted on pavements indicating how to keep a safe distance from others, visitor numbers were capped at a third of usual capacity, and entry times were staggered. Many visitors were also seen donning a face mask along with the usual Mickey Mouse ears. 

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At Bellagio Resort & Casino, owners installed plexiglass partitions to minimise the risk of infection when the casino reopened in June. As part of phased reopening in Nevada, casinos and hotels were able to open their doors from 4 June as long as they kept to social distancing rules.

It could almost be mistaken for being part of a modern art installation, but the tape on the floor in Amsterdam’s Hermitage museum was designed to show visitors the direction in which they must travel around exhibits, as well as to enforce physical distancing. Other changes to galleries and museums include plastic dividers at ticket desks, barcode ticketing and limited visitor numbers. 

 

In the Senegalese capital, an ancient baobab forest was chosen as the location for Dakar Fashion Week in December this year, allowing the show to go on despite the pandemic. The location was also chosen to reflect the show's sustainability credentials: 20 Senegalese designers known for their commitment to environmental responsibility were selected to present their designs, and many of their collections were handmade in Africa rather than being mass-produced. 

In the year that everything went online, even Santa hasn't missed out on a slice of the action. In Cornwall, a partnership between the charity Children's Hospice South West, Father Christmas and his elves has seen Santa head onto Zoom to give live sessions and pre-recorded messages for children all across the UK. The team usually prepare a Santa's Grotto for children to visit at this time of year, but have gone virtual in 2020 due to concerns about the spread of the virus.

A trip to see a pantomime is an annual British tradition that many thought was set to be cancelled in 2020 due to the threat of coronavirus. However, Brits might be surprised to learn that they can still watch one, thanks to ride hailing app Free Now's new "Hail-a-Panto" show. The initiative sees a "Puss in Boots" performance taking to doorsteps across the UK, with characters arriving in a fleet of taxis provided by the ride-hailing service to put on a shortened version of a traditional pantomime show.

At Santa Monica Airport's drive-in cinema, movie-goers have been able to enjoy extra festive treats in spite of COVID-19 restrictions. An attendant on a scooter hands out sweet treats to children in their cars, at a screening of Frozen organised by Rooftop Cinema Club. 

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