Coronavirus: Auckland alert level 3 extension 'disappointing' for hospitality
Monday, 24 August 2020
Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois says a four-day extension of alert level 3 is “disappointing” as hospitality businesses make the majority of their sales over the weekend.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday that Auckland would remain in level 3 in Auckland until 11.59pm on August 30, and then move to level 2.
Auckland went into level 3 and the rest of the country to level 2 on August 12.
Bidois said hospitality business owners were hoping to be able to open this weekend because the tail end of the weekend was the busiest time of the week for restaurants.
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She was pleased that the mass gathering exemption under level 2 did not apply for businesses, which was promising for Auckland businesses looking to recover from the impact of level 3.
The association’s survey of its Auckland members revealed that about 12 per cent were considering closing their restaurants for good, Bidois said.
“Of those about half were considering closing even under alert level 2,” Bidois said.
Auckland restaurateur Krishna Botica owns Xuxu Dumplings, Saan and Cafe Hanoi.
During level 3 Botica had closed Xuxu because it was not well-equipped to operate as a takeaway business.
She said the restaurants had cancelled almost a dozen group bookings for this weekend because of the level 3 restrictions and trading was down about 80 per cent below normal.
The disruption of the alert levels had impacted staff more than her businesses, Botica said.
“We have been around the block before, so this time we were better prepared to stay open in level 3,” Botica said.
“But when we can’t control whether we are open or not, it is hard to promise full hours. We have been able to keep our staff while operating during level 3.”
Auckland business association Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck said the economic blow of the latest lockdown on central business district businesses had been “immense” and the four-day extension would add to that.
“Every day counts,' Beck said.
She said she held deep concerns for many Auckland businesses and their owners, some of which were already at breaking point.
“No-one wants the virus to take hold but I think this is going to have a really severe impact.”
Even level 2 was a challenging environment for businesses due customer number limits and social distancing measures, she said.
It would also take time for customers to return, she said.
“Level 2 is not a panacea for many customer facing businesses. It will take time.”
During the first lockdown central city businesses collectively lost $258 million in income, she said.
The first week of the current level 3, which included two days of level 1, cost businesses $19m, she said.
Lockdowns resulted in about 130,000 Auckland central city office workers working from home, meaning the only customers left in the city centre were mostly residents, she said.
Small customer facing businesses were bearing a disproportionate impact of the restrictions, Beck said.
Auckland cafe Goodness Gracious owner Greg Cornes said that since the first time the country went into level 3 in April, he had learnt to prioritise online orders and takeaways.
“We have been able to survive because of the wage subsidy and help from our landlord. But we are lucky because even before all of this hit, takeaway orders made up half of our business.”
Cornes said hospitality businesses needed to prepare to operate in a world with Covid-19 around for at least a year and half.
“About 90 per cent of the industry is not able to change their model. The reality of living with the virus in our world is something people have talked about but accepting it is harder than it looks for some small businesses.”