St Thomas businesses feel the pinch of lockdowns

Several businesses in St Thomas have been feeling the pinch of shortened days due to state-ordered restrictions since the onset of the pandemic. However, the painful grip has intensified with the recent introduction of weekend-long lockdowns and half-day curfews.

Squealing under the pressure is owner and operator of the Yard Style cookshop in Port Morant, Rodgewayne Beckford.

“I do breakfast and lunch on a daily basis. Breakfast is ready by seven in the morning and lunch start sell at 12 noon, but because of this early lockdown, sometimes the amount of food I have can’t even sell off.

“So, sometimes I have leftover food that I have to give away or end up throw away, because I don’t believe in selling overnight food to people; so it’s really putting a strain on me.

Beckford, who has been operating his business for 30 years, shared that he is not even able to make enough money to foot his usual bills or to pay vendors from whom he credited meat for his shop.

The neighbouring business, Linval Hardware and Block Factory, has also been crumbling under the weight of restrictions.

Managing Director of the family-owned and operated business, Yvette Sterling, told The Gleaner that it has not been very easy to cope with the weekend lockdown due to the massive loss of income being experienced.

“Despite the shorter days and week, we still have to take care of overhead expenses such as bills, and staff must be paid. They aren’t responsible for the lockdown and they need the money, so we still have to pay them.

The curfew hours have also held up our deliveries, but I’m grateful to our loyal customers who continue to understand and support us,” she said, adding that other businesses operated by the family, including Lapas Lubricants in Morant Bay and Linval’s Gases in Roselle, have also been impacted.

Despite the negative impact on her finances, Sterling commended the Government for their effort towards lowering the number of COVID-19 cases, and encouraged others to conform to the necessary protocols.

While many businesses continue to suffer amid the pandemic, supermarkets worldwide have been reporting a spike in sales.

One supermarket owner in St Thomas says it has been quite the opposite for him.

“It has been a disaster for us. It makes no sense. We are now opening for only three hours on some days and I have to pay staff same way.

“Right now, people aren’t necessarily buying more, because they don’t have the funds, and those who used to buy $7,000 worth of grocery can now only afford $3,000 since some people have lost jobs and the remittances are coming in the volumes as they used to.

“And then there’s the issue of unavailability of supplies. For the past couple of weeks we’ve been unable to get our usual supply of rice, sugar and flour, and to top it off, there are price increases,” he shared.

PERSONAL SECURITY

The entrepreneur, who owns supermarkets in the parish’s capital, told The Gleaner that he has also had to ramp up business and personal security, adding to his expenses.

He continued, “So while there is the loss of sale, light bill not going down and now people start target you.

“Even police come to my place threatening to arrest us because ‘at 11:30 a.m., we need to run out people.’ We asked how can we do that when they have their bills in their hands, and the police telling us to let the buyers come back on Monday to collect their items. What should they eat on the weekend?

“It’s just been crazy, but we still have to give thanks because it’s a rough time for businesses overall. I wouldn’t say we are suffering losses … we have struggles, but we are surviving.”