‘A big thank you’ to loyal customers
The lockdown is over and the cafes and bakeries are back and luckily their customers are coming back too.
Chenae Loveridge’s Humdingers Cakes, and her new sandwich bar Weirdoughs, were almost back to pre-lockdown trading thanks to local support – much like other businesses around the mountain.
Loveridge said her customer base was primarily locals, and so far she was at about ‘‘80 if not 100 per cent’’ of usual trading, even though her goods are on ‘‘the luxury end’’. And for that, she wanted to say ‘‘a big thank you’’.
‘‘We appreciate it so much,’’ Loveridge said.
Trade at her Weirdoughs sandwich bar was slowly picking up, and though people weren’t ordering as many speciality cakes as usual, cupcake sales were up, helping keep her seven staff members employed, Loveridge said.
Jeremy Webling, who owns The Arizona burger bar and restaurant Fork n Knife, also appreciated the local support.
When The Arizona opened in level 3 it ran out of buns a number of times, but now ‘‘it’s not as crazy as it was’’, Webling said.
‘‘It’s dropped off a little bit,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s still pretty flat out.’’
In Stratford, spending at the Fenton Street Art Collective, which is a cafe, gallery, gin distillery and coffee roaster all in one, was still ‘‘well down’’, co-owner Stuart Greenhill said.
But the local residents, who before lockdown made up 40 per cent of their customers, were still coming in strong, Greenhill said.
As their gin is usually sold online or to travellers passing through, Greenhill said he was ‘‘trying to keep it local’’ by discounting it in-store for those who lived nearby.
Local support has also been encouraged through the lockdown initiative Save Our Small (SOS) Business, with $102,000 coming into Taranaki via the vouchers.
David Downs came up with the initiative at the start of lockdown. He wanted to help bring in money for small businesses when they had no other way to make it. So far, $1.6 million had been spent on vouchers nationwide.
Downs, who is on the Venture Taranaki board of trustees, said the region had been a ‘‘standout’’. ‘‘It’s incredible, that’s Taranaki for you.’’