During the first week of January four staff members at Opus Coffee Brewers were thrown into isolation. For a small business, having that many staff unavailable at any one time drastically reduced the kind of service the cafe on Keira Street, Wollongong could provide.
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Ever since, for manager Julia Barron, keeping up with who is in and out of isolation is a constant headache.
"We don't know how many people are going into isolation and coming out of isolation at any given time," she said.
This experience is a familiar one for businesses throughout the Illawarra, that were looking forward to a bumper Christmas and holiday period following the December 15 re-opening in NSW, only for Omicron to dash many of these hopes.
Now, with Omicron continuing to spread and hospitalisations rising, talk of a shadow lockdown, where people voluntarily isolate themselves, is hitting business confidence.
According to the Business Conditions Survey conducted in mid January by Business NSW, business confidence has remained negative, with little change since earlier surveys conducted during the 2021 lockdown.
Adam Zarth, executive director of Business Illawarra said the results came as no surprise.
"The triple challenge of isolating staff, hesitancy in the community and supply chain disruption has seen the continuation of low business confidence within the region, rather than the spike in summer trade that we hoped for," said Mr Zarth.
While business confidence remains low, companies are less willing to invest, both in new equipment and hiring additional staff.
"You might not invest in that new ute, if you're a tradie, or a cafe might not buy a new refrigerator," said Mr Zarth.
As the state prepared to re-open at the end of 2021, signs pointed to a surge in businesses looking for staff, with September and October seeing a rapid increase in the number of jobs advertised.
The issue of finding new staff then quickly changed to the reality of ensuring there was enough work for existing staff.
"That burst of job advertisements that we saw and the workforce shortages that were really biting in December, unfortunately that has had to take a backseat to the fact that many businesses are experiencing lower demand," said Mr Zarth.
At Opus, the style of service had to change to deal with lower than normal staff numbers. QR codes have been stuck to tables so that customers can order electronically.
"We'd love to go back to doing table service. But right now, it's just about keeping the community safe," said Ms Barron.
In addition to hospitality businesses, sectors such as retail and accommodation have also been doing it tough, particularly during what is usually the busiest time of the year.
Wollongong MP Paul Scully said that conditions right now are some of the worst ever seen.
"Daily I speak with business owners who describe trading conditions locally today as tougher than at the height of the harshest conditions of the lockdown last year," he said.
Ash Fisher, owner of Port Beirut and Outhouse Cafe in Port Kembla said in fact, the conditions now are worse than during lockdown.
"We had twice as many staff and I would say six times busier. [Now] people are scared to go out."
When she opened her pre-loved clothing store on Keira Street, Waratah Vintage, in October 2021, Ruby Apps hoped to channel the online clientele she had built up through a bricks and mortar store.
"It was really good at the start, people were super excited about us being here because we already had a following. But we did really notice a drop off when cases started to rise," she said.
Normally, the clothing on the racks at Waratah Vintage would be from markets and garage sales, but with fewer of these due to community concern over virus transmission, Ms Apps has had to turn to other methods of stocking her store.
"When we purchase online, it makes our profit margin smaller because you have to pay for shipping and shipping times are really long, because everyone is getting everything online too."
In these conditions, Mr Scully said that many business owners are seriously reconsidering their future.
"Businesses are doing it incredibly tough at the moment, many describing themselves as days or weeks away from closing their doors, which is going to have a lasting detrimental impact on the economy locally, on employment locally, and to be honest, on the vibrancy of our community."
Mr Scully said that the state government needed to support these businesses to remain open.
"Business support needs to happen sooner rather than later."
What Ms Apps is hoping for is some kind of rental relief, similar to what was on offer in 2020.
"There is [support] for employees, but I haven't seen much for small businesses, and what can happen if they are a close contact," she said.
Mr Zarth highlighted that now was the time for the community to get out and support small businesses.
"Explore your local community, go and enjoy those experiences, we've got fantastic theme parks, we've got fantastic natural, outdoor experiences."
Mr Scully also encouraged locals to make the most of traders in their community.
"There's still hundreds of millions of dollars in Dine and Discover vouchers that are unused. So consider using those in a venue that provides an outdoor dining activity, consider ordering directly over the phone from a local provider and look to support local businesses wherever possible.
"It's important that we help to sustain those businesses now, because we need them here in the long term for employment and for the activities they engage in such as donations and sponsorships for community activities."
For Ms Abbs, she is looking forward to when shopping and retail return to being a happy occasion.
"[When someone] finds something that they really love and makes them really feel good. That's really beautiful. I'm really lucky to be able to be that for someone."
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