Whanganui residents are being urged to shop locally and help keep local businesses afloat as they feel the economic impact of Covid-19. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui residents are being urged to shop locally and help keep local businesses afloat as they feel the economic impact of Covid-19. Photo / Bevan Conley
With Whanganui business bracing for the impact of coronavirus, people are being encouraged to shop locally - so long as they are well - with public health the priority.
Lucy Drake reports.
In the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, foot traffic at Whanganui's Trafalgar Square is down justhalf a per cent compared with March 2019, manager Susan Hunt says.
She said not much could be read into that in terms of business impact as a lot of people came to the shopping centre not just to shop but for the social contact as well.
So far New Zealand has eight confirmed cases but none in the Whanganui region.
Hunt said she didn't yet know what the impact of the coronavirus outbreak would be but "probably when we get a confirmed case I can imagine it will".
Hunt said the community should continue to support Whanganui businesses by shopping locally - but if people were felt unwell they should stay away.
"If you're feeling unwell do your grocery shopping online, be cautious. I don't think it's a time to panic and build yourself a bunker I think its time to exercise a bit of common sense."
Whanganui's Trafalgar Square has expected a slight decrease in foot traffic over the last 15 days but want to assure the community they have tight hygiene policies in place. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui and Partners chief executive Mark Ward said it would also be encouraging residents to shop local whenever possible.
"Our business owners have challenges ahead, and community support will be crucial."
Hunt said Trafalgar Square had a tight regime when it came to hygiene at the centre with cleaners wiping down furniture every hour.
"We're really conscious and our tenants are as well making sure we're seen doing good hygiene like wiping down tables."
Embassy 3 manager Gary Vinnell said business had quietened down a bit but the March and April period tended to be a quiet anyway.
"We're down to the same numbers we normally achieve in the March period, but in saying that all the international distribution companies are now pulling product from release due to the closing down of cinema in the major overseas markets, China, Europe, USA, so there will be a run-off impact on the New Zealand and Australian sector."
Vinnell said they would not know the real impact of until the end of next week and heading into April.
"We'll then see what the general public response is, we've have got our operating policies in place to handle what needs to be done, in terms of hygiene practices it just really comes down to people's perceptions."
He said at this stage they would carry on as normal and monitor results.
Adrian Ngaau from Sunny's Variety Store said they have not seen a drop in customers yet.
"The only downside for us is trying to keep up with stock levels but we can swap between our stores so it's not really affected us in the way that it has everybody else."
Meanwhile, Ward said the rate of development is making it impossible to accurately predict the economic impact or duration.
"A survey of businesses in the Whanganui-Manawatū region conducted just last week found that 69 per cent of businesses are concerned only a little or a moderate amount about the impact of Covid-19."
Ward suspected if the survey was conducted just five days later there would be some different results.
"Our biggest concerns in the early days were around business continuity for our import-export industries such as agribusiness, manufacturing and retail, but developments around the world now mean a recession, in which all sectors are vulnerable, looks likely."
Ward said businesses across the region should be in preparation mode when it comes to business continuity planning and Whanganui and Partners will be working to support them.
Head of School of Economics and Finance at Massey University, Professor Martin Berka, expected the impact to be the strongest for exporters and tourism.
"I can't imagine how many tourists we're going to be getting with two-weeks self-isolation," he said.
Head of School of Economics and Finance at Massey University, Professor Martin Berka believes tourism and exporting will be the two industries to be strongly impacted. Photo / Supplied
"No body is traveling these days because everybody is scared, it's part of the problem people don't want to spend and they are unsure about what's coming."
He said the number one thing was to ensure we do not get sick and are patient and caring with each other.
"Panic buying seems to have happened, that's not helping anyone to the extent that we are an exporting country for food so it's not like we are likely to run out of food unless nobody is working at all - but that's extremely unlikely."
Berka said we needed to realise this was a temporary shock and although he is expecting a recession he did not think it is going to last forever.
The Reserve Bank announced on Monday it had slashed the Official Cash Rate from 1 per cent to a new record low of 0.25 per cent.
But Economist Shamubeel Eaqub said "we're looking at the deepest and longest recession ever".
"This is worse than the global financial crisis," he said.
He forecast a very localised impact, saying regions which rely heavily on export and incomes "will experience a vast shock".
And of course, the priority for everyone should be to minimise the spread of the virus.
"We do not want the tragedy unfolding in Italy."
Mark Ward, chief executive of Whanganui and Partners is reminding businesses they will continue to support them through the Regional Business Partners programme. Photo / Lewis Gardner
