Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
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have the queues we usually see and there are very few people coming into the shop and it’s not looking like it is going to pick up.
“The new restrictions are killing the town centre and our business has suffered greatly due to the lack of footfall in the city now.
“We are not sure if the local people who would have shopped with us at this time of year are maybe going online instead.”
Elliott’s Fancy Dress
Company, w hich was established i n 1886, is Northern Ireland’s longestrunning fancy dress shop and is usually bombarded by customers queuing down the street at this time of year.
Mr Elliott explained how the current restrictions are not only hurting his family firm during what should be their busiest time of year but are greatly impacting people’s livelihoods across the city.
Although retail outlets were allowed to remain open under the new restrictions brought in by the Executive on October 16, the closure of hospitality and indoor leisure facilities and events for the next four weeks has had a great impact on sales.
He said: “It all has a knock-on effect.
Taking away places that people can gather for Halloween and party has affected us greatly.
“We have had to reduce our staff levels and where we would have had a raft of part-time and full-time staff around this season, we are now down to skeleton staff.”
While Mr Elliott appreciates the Government has attempted to support local business through grants and schemes since the beginning of the pandemic, he believes many of the guidelines have caused damage for years to come.
He added: “I don’t think they should have shut down the whole economy for so l ong as we are looking at more fallout for the millions of people whose jobs are on the line.”
Mr Elliott, who is “a little bit optimistic that things will ill pick ik up again soon”, stressed the significance of shopping locally during these uncertain times.
He said: “It is important to support the city centre and the place where you live because it is not just the retailers who are impacted, it’s the people who work in these places, their staff and their team.
“And if you are not supporting them, it may be your family and friends of yours that might lose their jobs.”
Halloween is not what it was, we don’t have the queues CLARK ELLIOTT BELFAST YESTERDAY