Businesses along the Central Otago towns’s retail strip, Holloway St, were yesterday tallying losses from what was traditionally the busiest trading day of the week, to email to the electricity network.
This follows an advertisement published in Thursday’s edition of The News Central Otago apologising for the almost nine-hour power cut, promising a $50 credit to all 1200 affected customers and asking businesses to email the company.
That is an offer affected retailers spoken to by the Otago Daily Times intend to take up, amid talk of banding together with every other Clyde business to bill the company collectively.
Bike It Now director Kathryn Fletcher said she was collating figures from previous Sundays but estimated losses would be significant.
The popularity of cycling had rocketed during lockdown and that momentum was something she had seen once her business was able to operate from Level 2 on.
Sales of bikes had been strong, she said.
"Bikes are the new toilet paper; everyone [cycling retailers] is waiting for 2020-21 bikes to come in."
The power cut was an embarrassment because a cycle tour party was due to arrive.
"We were in pitch black. We usually do itinerary briefings over coffee in one of the cafes. We had to do it out the back because that was the only place with enough light."
New Zealand label women’s wear retailer Anna McRitchie of Lily & Esther said a typical Sunday at this time of year could bring in about $1000, which was "pretty good".
"We’ve just got over this bloody Covid."
Folklore owner Sarah Sisson said the power cut coincided with with a promotion the home design store and gallery was running.
"We had people coming from out of town for the promotion and they arrived to a shop that was closed. That is one of the most difficult things for us and it is really embarrassing.
"Add to this the number of days we couldn’t trade under lockdown."
Eade Gallery owner Melanie Eade said she and her husband Rex lived above their business so monitoring when power was restored was easy but when the light came back on at 4pm there was "no point" in opening.
The nature of her business meant takings for a day could vary but the loss of a day’s trade was potentially worth $900 to $3000.
She believed the town’s tight-knit business would work together on pressuring Aurora for compensation.
"Maybe we go straight to the Commerce Commission."
