Too much confusion for businesses about what's really 'essential'
Monday, 30 March 2020
OPINION: Of all the confusion surrounding the introduction of a level four lockdown for New Zealand, one of the most detrimental to business has been around what precisely is an 'essential' service.
Businesses are now required to close unless they provide things such as food, medicine or infrastructure. But the definition has been wider reaching than many people expected at first.
Tarsh Boobyer, who owns butchery Tikipunga Fresh Foods with her husband, said they were told they would be an essential business… until the day before the lockdown.
They stocked up and prepared to serve their customers as well as they could through the disruption.
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'We just got the word from our suppliers that they can't deliver anymore during the lockdown.'
If they're closed for the full four weeks, that would mean the loss of $50,000 worth of meat they have had to freeze.
'I think if we keep going like this butchers and produce shops need to open.'
Another butcher, Top Cut Butchery in Raglan, was left with $40,000 of meat it could not sell after confusion over whether it was 'essential'. Its owner said he was the town's main supplier of meat.
Mad Butcher opened for one lockdown day regardless, claiming it was actually a supermarket because it sold more than meat.
It then backed down and shut its doors. Reduced to Clear remains open.
The Warehouse went as far as telling the stock exchange that it would be classed as an essential service and be allowed to operate – then had to do a u-turn. Its share price took a hammering.
Dairies are open but greengrocers are closed. Jenny Craig is being classed as an essential service. You're able to order new pyjamas online from Ezibuy's Australian distribution centres, but not from Postie. Amazon has stopped shipping to New Zealand but Asos has not.
Some butcheries and greengrocers have offered online deliveries while others felt they shouldn't. Beauty salon owners have wondered why they can't ship products to customers from home.
The Prime Minister clarified on Monday that we should be able to order a fridge and a heater if ours choose this month to give up. That allowed The Warehouse to open again, in a limited way.
It's understandable that in a fast moving environment, decisions have to be that sometimes aren't perfect. But the confusion over who is essential and who is not has put increased stress on firms that were already facing the sort of economic hit that most had never even contemplated.
The rules have handed the country's supermarkets a customer base of shoppers with limited other options. And, at the same time, they have landed many smaller operators a bill for a pointless pre-lockdown stock-up.
A fairer, clear approach would have given more businesses a chance of getting back on their feet quickly when things eventually return to something more like normal.