Craft Bar & Kitchen owner John MacDonald said his business in Dunedin’s Octagon was serving very few customers — but it was not because of the Government’s new guidelines to assist with managing and reducing transmission of Covid-19 in cafes, bars and restaurants.
The guidelines include a call for physical distancing; a limit of 100 people in indoor spaces; a Covid-19 guest register of everyone in a venue; undertaking regular head counts of people at a venue; configuring electronic gaming machines to allow appropriate physical distancing; and limiting table games at casinos to five people per table.
Mr MacDonald said he had had no problem with implementation of the guidelines.
"We’ve had no issues at all with the register. People are more than happy to fill out the paperwork.
"But I would have to say, we haven’t had very many people come through," he said.
"If I look out the window now, I can only see about half a dozen people in all of the Octagon bars. It looks like a ghost town.
"If I liken our turnover on Saturday with last Saturday’s, we are down by over 90%."
He said the restaurant only served about 20 people yesterday.
"It’s hitting us unbelievably hard.
"We’re only hanging on for the sake of the staff. I don’t want to make anybody redundant if I can possibly avoid it," he said.
"I’ve applied for the wage subsidy, but there’s going to be a limit, unfortunately.
"This is going to go on for ages. We haven’t even got to the shutdown stage yet."
Inch Bar (Dunedin) manager Cameron Brown said his bar was not as hard-hit as some in the city because it was a "locals’ bar".
He said the bar was very small and most of the patrons lived nearby and knew each other.
"We’ve been around for a long time and there’s quite a tight-knit group here — you come here to see your mates and talk about your problems.
"We’re still trickling along quite nicely."
He said the business’ daily takings had dropped about 30%.
Brazz Bar (Queenstown) manager Mary Sholl said her team was taking the situation "day by day".
She said the new guidelines were slowing down service.
"But we have less customers, so it’s been all right.
"No-one seems to complain. Everyone understands the situation and the severity of it, so we’re doing OK."
A staff member at Queenstown’s Minus 5° Ice Bar said the bar was reducing its capacity from the usual 30 patrons to 15.
Another Queenstown bar manager, who declined to be named, said the new regulations were "a little bit foreign for everyone".
"Strange times when you have to sign in and out of a pub when you just want to go out for a quiet drink."
However, everyone was happy to comply.
"A lot of people are commenting that it’s good to see that measures are being taken to keep the community as a whole safe."
