Marigold Cafe owner Justin Bruning was checking customers vaccine passes on Friday.
There have been hard decisions and sadness around Te Puke as businesses come to terms with operating under the Government's Covid-19 Protection Framework.
Hospitality businesses have been faced with the stark choice of only providing a contactless service, or only allowing vaccinated customers into their premises, although there is hope that some might eventually be able to provide both.
The Daily Cafe is run as a social enterprise by the Daily Charitable Trust.
''For us, as a charity, our main business is to provide a place of connection for our community,'' said the trust's interim general manager Chrissi Robinson.
''It was a really difficult choice to either go with the My Vaccine Pass, which meant some of our community could come in and connect, or go with contactless pick-up, which meant that no one could come in and connect. That's the choice we were faced with, and it was definitely not an easy one.
''But from a sustainability point of view it would have been very hard to maintain the business only doing the contactless, so it's also about wanting to be here for the town for the future as well.''
Miriam Canty jointly owns Anann Pineapple Pub.
''It's not our choice, and we'd prefer not to have to [require customers to show vaccine passes],'' she said.
''We got into hospitality because we like people and we like making people happy and having any sort of divide in the community is not what we are all about. We like to bring people together, but because it's the only viable choice to keep our business going, we've been forced to do it this way - it's disappointing."
She says some people may see the decision as exacerbating the divide.
''But that's not our intention at all, we are just trying to keep things going, we are just trying to survive - it's been a tough enough year and a half or so.''
She says the community has been supportive so far.
''Anyone that came to us over the weekend was very prepared and positive which was nice, but it's a stressful time and the fear of any kind of backlash against it has been quite stressful for me.''
Justin Bruning, who co-owns Marigold Cafe, has been out the front of the cafe from time to time since the framework came into force last Friday, taking his turn at scanning customers' vaccine passes.
''Today [Monday]'s been pretty good. While I was outside, I only ended up sending one person away. They had been vaccinated, but hadn't downloaded the pass to their phone and didn't have their ID on them, so couldn't go to the chemist to get it sorted.''
He said there had been some grumpy people and on Saturday a couple became quite verbally abusive.
''They said they would go somewhere else, but everyone's doing it, so good luck.''
He said there was really no choice but to require people to show their vaccine pass before they could enter the cafe.
''We either do it this way or take all the tables out and be a takeaway cafe. Really those are the only options there are and when we were in [alert] level 3 it was barely breaking even.
"It would be similar to that, so it's not worth it. And to do that, we would lose half the staff and that's not fair on them.''
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''It has been quieter,'' he said. ''We had a few people leave because they weren't vaccinated and another who was leaving anyway, but because it's been a bit quieter, it hasn't been too bad to move someone out there.''
Chrissi said the changes have meant staff having to take on different roles.
''I'm just really proud of our team. A lot of them are having to do new roles and are being thrown in the deep end by the suddenness of all this and they are just stepping up and doing such a good job and that's a key positive thing.''
All three said they hope to be able to provide some sort of contactless pickup service to cater for those without vaccine passes.
Both The Daily and Marigold should be able to provide separate pick up areas for people without vaccine passes.
''We will carry on being a vaccine pass site, which means people will still be able to come in and have the normal cafe experience, but we are also going to set up a little pick-up point for people who want to do contactless,'' said Chrissi.
With two doors into the shop, Justin said once the technical aspects had been sorted he hoped to be able to offer contactless service from one of those doors.
Miriam said it might not be practical to look at providing contactless service for those who are unvaccinated.
''But we are looking at it and trying to figure out what might be possible, but right now while we are still coming to terms with everything, it's not something that's being looked at heavily."
Some Christmas functions booked for Anann have been cancelled.
''People don't want to separate their staff when they come for their Christmas function. They have a mix of staff who are vaxxed and some are not, so rather than have it for some people they are saying, 'Okay we won't do it'. I think it will be a different Christmas for us all.''
Some close contact businesses, however, are not able to ask for vaccine passes.
Te Puke Physiotherapy owner Neil Barback said the business isn't affected by the vaccine passport requirements, but it is covered by the medical staff vaccine mandate.
''We have had a few people who have checked that if they are unvaccinated, they can come,'' he said.
A vaccine requirement would be seen as denying someone medical care.
''There is some confusion, particularly if we are working in a gym environment because in gyms, they have to ask for vaccine certificate, but we aren't allowed to ask for it because it would be a barrier to healthcare.''
He said that with potentially unvaccinated clients, as a close contact environment, ''We have got to be mindful of our infection control and our own health and safety, but the understanding, from the way I get it, is that basically the requirement for health and safety is trumped by the clients' ability to access healthcare.''
Earlier this week EPIC Te Puke marketing manager Rebecca Larsen said there was a general air of positivity around town.
However, at the weekend she felt it necessary to make a Facebook post regarding comments around businesses and the traffic light system.
''I think there is some negative stuff online,'' she said. ''People are very triggered about it, and they are very reactive so instead of stepping back and thinking about it, they are jumping on (to social media) and blurting stuff out and it's damaging - some of it is really damaging and it's hurtful.''
Her posts included the message that the measures are for safety reasons and businesses have no choice.
''Every business is different, but it's mainly about close contact businesses. I think there's a lot of confusion because a lot of people think it's retail too, but it's not.''
A number of businesses have put up 'no vaccine passport required' signs, which Rebecca thinks may have caused confusion for customers.
''The message was 'we are welcoming', and they did it with good intention, but it makes people think retailers are choosing sides - but they aren't because they aren't close contact businesses. It's not about taking sides, it's about keeping safe.''
She thinks with the relatively low incidence of cases locally, there may be some complacency.
''[Businesses] are just trying to manage it the best they can so we don't have big outbreaks.''
She said a number of locations of interest announced in Te Puke earlier this week, ''might start people waking up to it''.
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