A desperate plea from a 31-year-old downtown Auckland dining institution has raised more than $16,000 from customers since Tuesday.
Vivace restaurant issued a drastic SOS asking diners to buy into a voucher pledge scheme to help it stay afloat until Christmas party bookings kick in.
“A lot of us inthe city are at the ‘use it or lose it’ stage,” said co-owner Mandy Lusk. “I think everyone is living very much week to week . . . in the bluntest way, we need some bums on seats now.”
Expenditure in downtown Auckland is improving, but the latest quarterly figures show it is still 10 per cent down on 2019. Foot traffic counts are 25 per cent lower than pre-Covid.
Lusk said the perception that the city was “back to normal” was incorrect.
“We seem to have jumped from disaster to disaster.”
In late August, Vivace was “right on the cordon” of a gas leak that resulted in evacuations and the loss of every single dining reservation that night. Lusk recalled a Saturday when the Harbour Bridge was threatened with a closure (that never eventuated) “and we lost 47 people for dinner”.
Vivace is an Italian restaurant that opened in 1992. It moved to its current Fort St location in 2018 and, in the past year, had been impacted by flooding, changes and cancellations to train and ferry services, ongoing construction and roadworks, the continued trend to “work from home” and crime concerns, including two recent shootings in the immediate vicinity.
Lusk said Christmas party bookings from mid-November were looking good and, longer term, she was looking forward to a bumper cruise ship season, more tourists and business travellers, increased office occupancy rates and the completion of the city rail link.
“That lottery ticket we buy each week definitely has the right numbers to win Powerball! But hope doesn’t pay our staff or our bills . . . we need a leg-up to get through spring, into Christmas and beyond.
“I’m sure I’m not the only one pacing the house at 3am. I think there’s no shame left now. I don’t want to throw away 30 years of my life.”
Last week’s email, urging customers to dine in, make bookings and buy vouchers that would entitle them to further discounts and promotions, was “a cry for help” that had immediate results, Lusk said. By Friday, 36 patrons had purchased $16,400 worth of vouchers but, more importantly, the restaurant was filling up again at lunchtime.
“We’ve had fantastic regulars in who admitted they hadn’t been into town for three months. We had a table of girls who said they’d read the email - one of them had been to the chiropractor, another had gone to the hairdresser and they all had shopping bags. The whole town benefits from that.”
Mandy Lusk, co-owner of Vivace restaurant in Fort St, Auckland, says the hospitality industry needs more downtown diners. Photo / Michael Craig
Lusk said the main pressure on hospitality owners was from landlords who wanted lockdown and emergency alert level debts settled.
“We were assuming we’d be able to start paying this back now, but 2023 has been a semi-disaster and we started it with no gas in the tank.
“We’re asking people to come back to town, especially at lunchtimes, early afternoons and early weeknights. We’re asking people to not be afraid, to put up with the traffic cones, the non-existent trains and the dodgy ferry services. If you’re working from home, you don’t even need to take off your track pants. We have no dress code!”
Viv Beck, Heart of the City chief executive said while many businesses had made direct appeals to their customers during the Covid downturn it was heartbreaking “for people to have gone through all of this, and still be feeling that level of desperation”.
While city foot traffic counts had improved every quarter this year, and there were major infrastructure improvements on the horizon, Beck said central and local government officials needed to be reminded “just how much this place was hurt - and that policy and support to help the recovery is so essential”.
Marisa Bidois, Restaurant Association chief executive, said hospitality businesses faced “a cloud of uncertainty” with only 20 per cent of operators anticipating improvement in the coming year. Meanwhile, in the 12 months to the end of June, labour costs had surged an average of 38 per cent, fruit and vegetable prices went up 22 per cent and meat, poultry and fish prices increased by 11 per cent.
“These factors collectively pose significant hurdles, making it increasingly challenging for businesses to maintain healthy profit margins.”
Bidois said while, overall, the restaurant industry’s year-on-year revenue remained stable, “we’ve received anecdotal feedback from our members indicating a decrease in average customer spending due to the current cost of living pressures”.
Bad weather was compounding those problems, she said.
“We are seeing a glimmer of optimism among our members regarding the approaching summer trading season - and we are hopeful that nothing will hinder its success.”
