Melbourne makes up for lost time

Changes mean outdoor cinema screenings with wood-fired pizzas and bespoke cocktails.

Cafe owner, Salvatore Malatesta at St Ali Roasters in South Melbourne after reopening on Wednesday after stage 4 lockdowns in Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty

Salvatore Malatesta will transport his customers to a bustling Italian piazza this summer. The owner of Melbourne cafe St Ali Coffee Roasters has installed an outdoor dining space that coincided with the end of the city’s deep freeze.

The South Melbourne cafe’s doors flung open on Wednesday at 7am when the city’s retailers, pubs, restaurants and cafes began to reopen.

“It’s been like opening my first restaurant again — joyous smiles, virtual hugs. We’re so happy. It’s what we love doing,” Malatesta told The Weekend Australian.

The cafe, which is usually a walk-in venue, is booked out for the month of November. Malatesta said he opted to offer bookings from early November to cater to the city’s pent-up demand to sip on a barista-brewed coffee in a cafe.

Under the state government’s COVID-19 restrictions, the cafe’s outdoor seating is permitted to hold 50 diners, while 20 customers can be seated indoors.

“I think outdoor dining should be part of Melbourne forever. It’s what we all want, rather than a temporary set-up,” Malatesta said. St Ali will continue its takeaway service to make up for reduced capacity of in-person dining.

From mid-November, the restaurant will host outdoor cinema screenings with wood-fired pizzas and bespoke cocktails — another chapter in its evolving trade during the pandemic.

The coffee roaster pivoted to making hand sanitiser when the coronavirus hit Australia, deploying staff to the venture.

Several of its venues also ­morphed into general stores ­during the pandemic, allowing it to strengthen its online presence.

But serving coffee is the businesses’ core speciality.

Throughout the first day of business on Wednesday, the cafe’s wait list hovered at 30 customers long. Melbourne’s retail sector experienced a similar frenzy when the city’s stage four lockdown, lasting more than 100 days, ended. Shoppers flooded to stores to indulge in retail therapy.

About 10,000 shoppers passed through the doors of Kmart’s five late-night Melbourne stores between midnight and 6am on Wednesday.

“Given the unique situation in Victoria, the pre-Christmas window has condensed and so we’re definitely seeing a huge level of excitement from customers who can get back into store,” a Kmart spokeswoman said.

“Everyday basics, toys and stationery have been in demand. The Kmart Christmas range has also seen popularity as we see our customers shopping much earlier than in previous years.”

A David Jones spokeswoman said more customers were choosing to shop at off-peak trading times to avoid crowds.

“With Victoria so heavily impacted by state COVID-19 restrictions, customers have naturally adjusted to a predominantly online retail experience. We anticipate that david­jones.com will see an increase in customers versus the 2019 Christmas period.

“As we move towards gifting season, we expect that David Jones customers will be preparing earlier than previous years to avoid the Christmas rush.”

Vicinity Centres said its Melbourne stores, including Chadstone and Emporium, reported foot traffic of around 80 per cent of last year, since retail has reopened.

Consumer behaviour expert Jason Pallant said the instant rush to the shops highlights that customers crave a retail experience beyond the transaction.

“We’ve been able to buy things online but we still enjoy the experience of going somewhere, often with other people, seeing other people and seeing things,” the Swinburne University academic said.

“We saw, from the data of the first lockdown, a massive spike when things opened up because there was that rush back.

“People had been putting off purchases and waiting until they could get back into store and there was that excitement.”

But he predicted the pandemic’s economic toll would still result in a subdued Christmas trading period, with Treasury predicting one in 10 Australians will be unemployed by the holiday season. “We still don’t necessarily know if we’ll be able to have the Christmas dinner or how many people we’ll be able to catch up with …

“A lot of consumers will also shift their behaviour to shopping online because they have been forced to do it during this pandemic.”

This week ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott was talking up the prospect of an economic “bounce-back” in Victoria.

“What we’ve seen in other parts of the country, that actually as the economies and businesses and people do emerge from these lockdowns, you really do get quite a sharp recovery,” Elliott told investors during a results briefing.

He noted Western Australia had emerged from its COVID lockdown earlier this year stronger than ever.

“Today spending in (WA) cafes and restaurants is not just back to where it used to be, it’s actually 18 per cent higher than it was a year ago pre-COVID,” Elliott said.

Comparing Victoria’s response to COVID-19 to elsewhere in the world, Deutsche Bank macro strategist Tim Baker said the state’s low rate of cases was likely result in a quick surge of economic activity.

“I think what’s different with Australia is we’ve had very heavy-handed responses to a minimal COVID-19 problem versus everywhere else in the world.

So the potential for snap-back in mobility and economic activity is much bigger here, particularly in Victoria.”

He said Australia’s record low interest rate and policy stimulus had lifted consumer sentiment, which would release pent-up demand over summer.

“We’ve never seen the saving rate this high in Australia before, but the anticipated fear of wealth destruction has not come so the necessity to save to buffer your asset position just isn’t there.

“People can breathe a sigh of relief … so people are thinking it’s time to get out there.”