There might be no shop to come back to
Business owners across the Wishaw area are facing up to a new reality without work.
The impact of coronavirus is really beginning to bite with shops and bars closed due to the imposed lockdown.
One woman particularly affected by the new restrictions is Catherine Allen, who co-owns Pixie’s Petals flower shop in Newmains and runs the Damside Inn in Allanton.
Speaking to the Wishaw Press this week, Catherine said:“We were just clearing up after Mother’s Day as we can’t get any flowers from our supplier in Holland.
“Unfortunately, we are in the same position as everybody else.
“I had to shut the Damside when the government made the decision. It’s now up for sale.
“I don’t think people realise the reality of the situation.
“We expected tough times but nothing like this.
“No one knows when we will come out of this but I just hope I have a business to come back to at the end of it all.”
Catherine’s daughter Yvonne Brodie is the co-owner of Pixie’s Petals.
“Never in my life did I ever think it would come to this,”saidYvonne.
“My husband is self-employed as well so this is going to hit us hard.
“It doesn’t seem real but I think people need to listen to the government advice. We are now in lockdown.”
Before Boris Johnson announced lockdown measures, the UK Government announced it would pay the wages of millions of workers across Britain to keep them in jobs as the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak escalates.
In an unprecedented step for the British Government, the chancellor Rishi Sunak said the state would pay grants covering up to 80 per cent of the salary of workers if companies kept them on their payroll, rather than lay them off as the economy crashes.
The extraordinary payments will be worth up to a maximum of £2,500 per month, just above the median income.
The announcement came just days after the government pledged a business bailout package worth £350 billion to help firms cope with the lockdown of large parts of the British economy as the disease spreads.