Hospitality businesses in the New South Wales region have switched to takeout sales in a bid to save thousands of dollars in stock after the entire state went into lockdown on Saturday afternoon.
Restaurant and cafe owners in the border town of Albury were only given a few hours’ notice to prepare for the new restrictions, which took effect amid weekend operations at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Debbie Davis, owner of Level One Wine Bar in Albury, says her business was booked Saturday night and Sunday for a special function.
“Obviously, we had ordered a lot of food for Sunday and not food that we normally have because it was a tasting,” Davis tells SmartCompany.
Davis, who co-owns the bar with her partner Mark Davis, says her chefs saved stocks by turning them into take-home meals to sell at the business’s sister store, Level One Cellars, on Deans Street.
“There was a lot of food and we can’t freeze it because our motto is that we sell everything fresh,” she says.
Businesses in the border town have been significantly affected by the change in coronavirus restrictions in New South Wales and Victoria in the past 18 months.
Davis says that every time the border closes it affects her business because many of her clients live in Wodonga.
“Everyone in Albury and Wodonga considers it just one place, so everyone is affected as soon as there is a border closure,” she says.
New South Wales Regional had so far escaped stay-at-home orders in effect in Greater Sydney, which have now been extended into its eighth week.
These latest restrictions, introduced for the entire New South Wales region, will be lifted at 12:01 am on Sunday, August 22 at the earliest.
Under the restrictions, hospitality venues must be closed to the public, except for take out, and all non-essential business venues are required to close.
Hanna Kadi, who co-owns As Thick As Thieves café with her brother Ehabe Kadi, says she was “devastated” when she learned that the New South Wales region would also go into lockdown.
“I was devastated. It was about 2:45 pm, all of our preparation was done for Sunday, which of course is a very busy day,” Kadi tells SmartCompany.
Kadi will trade through the lockdown by selling the cafeteria dinner menu only as takeout and selling items to avoid waste.
“We will try to sell our eggs and bread for the next few days from coffee,” she says.
“We are out of my pocket, obviously. We are losing a lot of stock and we have to pay our staff.”
On Monday, NSW Health recorded 478 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8 p.m. the previous day.
