Covid 19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: Supporting local business during Level 3 will save jobs - MP

Small businesses that watched their incomes drop to nothing overnight due to a snap lockdown are eager to reopen at alert level 3.

Among them is a business which opened a cafe space just four months before the lockdown began and a florist who says the lockdown was "devastating".

Blanc Flowers owner and florist Sharon Peddie said local support for her business would be "a tremendous help" at level 3.

"The rent still has to be paid."

When Peddie, a florist for 23 years, heard about the lockdown she wanted to put her customers first.

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"I had five internet orders that I had to get on the road and I delivered."

Peddie's customers that day included a 92-year-old in a retirement home, a cancer patient who had just been released from hospital and someone celebrating their 60th birthday.

Peddie said the lockdown had been "devastating." She particularly felt for flower growers who had to cut down their crops.

Blanc Flowers owner and florist Sharon Peddie is keen to get back to putting her customers first. Photo / File

"It's been horrid. I do have an underlying health issue. But I've been able to get the subsidies for my staff which has been amazing."

Peddie has been working with dried flowers at home since the lockdown began.

"I am opening up on Wednesday. I can do contactless deliveries, online orders."

Peddie said although her product was limited at the moment, all her flowers were locally sourced.

"Every bunch of flowers is made from the heart."

She was excited to be looking after customers again under level 3.

"The best part of being a florist is pleasing people."

Soul Boul co-owners Stacey Horton and Alex Bell were also excited to reopen.

The pair had been operating a food truck every summer for the past four years and opened their first cafe space four months before the snap lockdown.

"We'd just opened up," Horton told the Bay of Plenty Times.

"We were enjoying the new space and were quite gutted to hear about the lockdown. Hopefully, this is maybe the last one."

Soul Boul Cafe opened on Maunganui Rd just four months before this year's lockdown. Photo / Supplied

Horton said Soul Boul's first four months had been great and, while she and Bell both missed working, they tried to approach lockdown as a break.

"If this went on for longer and we couldn't open in the summer then I think it would be more stressful but at the moment it has been kind of nice."

Horton said the health and safety regulations under level 3 would be relatively easy for Soul Boul to follow.

"We're quite lucky, our window that we serve out of is pretty much perfect. We don't need to move our Eftposmachine. It's just about restocking all of the stuff we've wasted and figuring out what staff can work."

Horton said the benefits of supporting local small businesses were obvious.

"Small businesses are paying tax on the product they sell and that's going back into the community. It just makes more sense to help everyone to thrive."

National Party spokesperson for small businesses and Rotorua MP Todd McClay. Photo / File

National Party spokesman for small businesses Todd McClay said the lockdown had been a very difficult time for businesses.

"Many of them have had no income at all and yet their bills are still there and mounting up."

McClay said shopping local would save jobs.

"Every time you shop with a local small business you're saving a job. Even $10 on click and collect fish and chips means a huge amount to that small business that still needs to pay their rents and their rates and all their costs."

Priority One Chief Executive Nigel Tutt. Photo / Supplied

Priority One chief executive Nigel Tutt said retail spend after the lockdown in 2020 was higher than it had been the previous year.

"After the last lockdown there was a really big response to supporting local business. That was a really good thing for this economy. We need that to happen for this lockdown as well."

Tutt said many businesses such as physiotherapists, hospitality, accommodation providers and retailers with a smaller digital footprint hard hit by this year's national lockdown would still not be able to open in level 3.

"I just encourage the public to support those people, buy takeaways, buy vouchers if you can."

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Matt Cowley. Photo / File

Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Matt Cowley said small businesses open under level 3 were just a few transactions away from breaking even.

"I know a number of popular restaurants were barely covering the costs of opening for contactless business under level 3.

"Locals who choose to buy from small businesses, as opposed to the bigger nationwide outlets, have a more meaningful impact."

Cowley encouraged Bay of Plenty residents to support local businesses on social media and to buy gift vouchers for friends or work colleagues to use later, especially for businesses unable to open until level 2.

Under alert level 3 Tauranga City Council facilities and venues remain closed, but the council will resume glass and food scrap bin collections and reopen the Te Maunga Transfer Station.

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