Cafe owner has to drive taxi to pay bills
Halifax Cafe owner Hinder Singh is struggling.
His long days start at the Nelson business some time between 9.30am and 10am, and he works there until about 2pm. After a short break, Singh then switches gear and starts his second job – as a taxi driver, working from 3pm to 11pm.
The struggle is more than just financial. ‘‘I can’t give much time to my family,’’ said the husband and father of two children, aged 8 and 2.
However, Singh does not feel like he can ease his foot off the doublejob situation.
At times lately, the income from driving a taxi has been used to supplement the wages of the staff at the cafe, employees he is grateful to have.
‘‘I’m lucky I’ve got staff,’’ he said. Singh is also grateful for the customers who have continued to visit the sunny, north-facing cafe, which he has owned since mid-2017.
However, despite those regulars, patronage was down by nearly 60% on pre-Covid numbers, he said.
Situated next to the Nelson City Council building and opposite the Elma Turner Library, council employees accounted for many of the customers at Halifax Cafe before the pandemic, as did workers from other businesses and offices nearby.
‘‘We’re not depending on tourists – it’s normally locals,’’ Singh said. ‘‘They used to come in [for meetings], 15-16 people together.’’
However, those gatherings had dropped away, he said, particularly since the Omicron outbreak, which meant many workers from offices and businesses in the city had been either working from home or isolating at home.
‘‘We were fine in [alert] level 2,’’ Singh said, referring to the former Covid-19 alert system, which gave way in December to the protection framework, also known as the traffic light system.
The number of older people visiting the cafe had also fallen, which Singh put down to concerns about Omicron, which is more transmissible than previous variants of Covid-19.
In a double whammy, the financial hit from fewer customers has come as costs are rising for some key ingredients and other expenses, such as fuel.
‘‘Prices are going up, but you can’t put up coffee to $7,’’ Singh said.
The business was absorbing many of those increased costs, he said, but he was not sure how long this would be sustainable.
Nor was he sure how long he could keep working two jobs and missing out on so much time with his young family.
Hoping to relieve the pressure, Singh has put the cafe on the market.