Community advocate Claire Mahon has established a Facebook page to encourage
residents to buy locally in a bid to keep businesses afloat. Photo / Andrew Warner
Community advocate Claire Mahon has established a Facebook page to encourage
residents to buy locally in a bid to keep businesses afloat. Photo / Andrew Warner
Rotorua locals are being challenged to "support local" as best they can to help struggling businesses.
Jobs are on the line and business' futures are under threat as Rotorua businesses grapple with the ever-changing restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Community advocate Claire Mahon has established a Facebookpage to encourage residents to buy locally in a bid to keep the businesses afloat.
"It is really important that we all recognise there is the social aspect of needing to stay home but then there is the economic aspect.
"But if we want those businesses to still be there when everything returns to normal then we need to continue to support them now."
Currently, the country remains at Alert Level 2 and the Government at the weekend set out how the new restrictions on physical distancing and the limit of 100 people in an indoor space will work in hospitality venues.
They include implementing a Covid-19 guest register of everyone in a venue and undertaking regular headcounts of people in a venue.
However, Mahon said it was not just the hospitality sector she was thinking of but the creatives and charities also.
"Some of our businesses are heavily reliant on overseas tourists and when that stops we want to encourage local people to go and visit and spend money with them.
"For our little businesses, the longer time without cash flow will mean the difference of making it or breaking it."
Zippy Central Cafe owner Morgan Wilson said business had been flat-lining since Wednesday. Photo / File
Zippy Central Cafe owner Morgan Wilson said the decline in business was hard to see at first due to Crankworx but by Wednesday last week, he said things had started to really slow down.
"It has been kinda flat-lining since."
He said the impact the pandemic was having on staff was two-fold as the industry was under a lot of pressure but they were also dealing with customers who were dealing with stress also.
Alert levels could change quickly and the uncertainty of each day was hard Wilson said but that was why it was important for locals to support the business "today".
"If you can it is only going to help. Our businesses are struggling.
"If you can support your local business do so, but not everyone is in that situation or the elderly who are not able to go out so you can only do what you can."
Tea and Happiness owner Karin Vincent with her son Jacob Vincent. Photo / File
With a son that is asthmatic, Tea and Happiness owner Karin Vincent had to think quickly about the implications she had by being on the "frontline".
As a result, the business on Fairy Springs Rd has changed from a "dine-in or takeaway" to strictly takeaway - but the lack of customers from local tourism outlets has made an impact on her books.
"Buying local means you are ensuring the survival of your community for one or two days more.
"We're going to need to start relying on each other's shoulders."
Urbano Bistro owner Richard Sewell said the business was bordering on a 30 per cent decrease in turnover but he was taking it day by day.
Urbano Bistro owner Richard Sewell said the business was bordering on a 30 per cent decrease in turnover. Photo / File
"We are kiwis and if they shut down our borders to get some sort of foothold in the way that this virus is moving then we should be shutting it down.
"But currently it is business as usual for us."
He said the location of the Bistro - on Fenton St - meant it was easier to manage the new restrictions of people entering the premises but to ensure the community felt safe they had cleaned the business from head to toe.
"We will keep working until the day people have to stop coming in.
"We just have to batten down the hatches and hope it all works out."
