Sunshine Coast restaurants, bars counting cost of latest coronavirus lockdown

Hospitality operators are counting the costs of the snap lockdown as ongoing restrictions pose another challenge for owners and staff.

The cost of the snap lockdown which shut down the Sunshine Coast is still being felt by embattled hospitality operators.

Adjusting to ongoing restrictions enforced again after last week’s three-day lockdown, business owners were this week still tallying their losses after three days of school holiday trade was lost.

Some Mooloolaba operators were expecting to incur losses of about $20,000 from the shutdown last week.

Sunshine Coast Hotels Group managing director Scott Armstrong said the lockdowns had a significant effect.

“It’s that loss of momentum,” he said.

He said it was difficult to deal with a snap lockdown and then have to “gear up from a standing start” at 6pm Friday, as operators had to do last week.

Mr Armstrong said restrictions in place also deterred some customers, although he said his venues were lucky enough to boast plenty of outdoor areas.

He said they’d taken to ordering stock fresh daily, to avoid having to throw out bulk supplies in the event of a lockdown.

“They’re (lockdowns) very taxing when that happens,” Mr Armstrong said.

He said the region was lucky in comparison to other places, including Melbourne, which had endured prolonged lockdowns that devastated businesses.

Mayor Mark Jamieson said this particular lockdown had been “seen as being very harsh on business”.

He said businesses wanted to see some accountability so that some of the errors that “may have occurred” didn’t happen again.

Mr Jamieson said he thought last week’s lockdown could further encourage vaccinations.

He encouraged residents to support local accommodation, tourism, restaurant, bar and club operators.

“Many of them would’ve been managing very challenging issues with stock and knowing whether to reorder or not subject to whether we would or not come out of the lockdown, but those businesses would be very eager to see locals supporting them and I’m sure they’ll show them a good time,” he said.

Mr Jamieson said an inquiry was necessary, given the manner in which the virus escaped effectively from hospital quarantine.

“Someone needs to be responsible for that,” he said.

“I think businesses want to have more certainty that the investments they have and the staff they have and future they have is not going to be compromised by somebody making a silly mistake.”

State Opposition Leader David Crisafulli also called on the state government to roll out short and long-term assistance packages for businesses.

Among the measures he called for as part of a safety net for business were lump lockdown payments, deep cleaning cover and event cancellation rebates, while in the short-term a voucher system to encourage spending in local businesses also had Mr Crisafulli’s support.