Elwood cafe owner given warning for customers breaching social distancing rules
Elwood cafe owner Dan Watson is desperately trying to keep his business alive. But customers not doing the right thing outside his store have earned him a police warning.
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Stressed cafe owner Dan Watson is working around the clock to keep his business alive amid the coronavirus pandemic but was yesterday given a stern warning by police for allegedly breaching social distancing rules.
He runs popular Elwood coffee shop Mr Tuppy and said police warned him they had received complaints from locals that his customers weren’t sticking to the 1.5 metre distancing rules while ordering up food and drinks at his Tennyson St store.
“We have done everything we can that we’ve learned from the news, they (the police) don’t come down and help you do anything you need to do,” Mr Watson said.
“We are quite busy so at some stage there might be 40 people out the front waiting, unless we put another staff member on — which we can’t afford — we can’t watch this.
“We basically can’t afford to keep our doors open as it is.”
Mr Watson has put crosses 1.5 metres apart down the street to make it clear to customers where they must stand when they are ordering or waiting for the items.
“As a small business, we are only doing the best that we can do,” he said.
“We are getting threatened, but the police were hinting if it keeps happening, they could take it further.”
Mr Watson said they hadn’t made more than a 30 per cent of revenue in order to be eligible to seek the government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy but he had already been forced to lay off half his staff.
“Instead of coming in and saying we are going to fine you the police should encourage people on what do to correctly,” he said.
The Herald Sun attended the cafe on Thursday morning and could see customers adhering to social distancing rules.
“We’ve blocked everything off and have crosses on the ground and we are only letting two people in at the time,” Mr Watson said.
“We’ve got crosses all the way up the street as far as the eye can see to try and facilitate what they government is asking from us.”
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