Under lockdown restrictions, Canberra retailers, deemed non-essential, have been forced to close shop both physically and online – regardless of their capacity to safely facilitate orders.
Owner of Braddon plant store Green Vine, Irene Donoghoe, established her business a month before lockdown.
Prior to that she had co-run Trilogy Skateboards in Canberra for more than a decade.
Anticipating a lockdown could be imminent, the Green Vine owner is one of many local business people who prepared by setting up an online shop that would allow them to operate should they have to close their shopfronts.
It was the acumen she acquired from previous business experience that prompted her to do that.
Ms Donoghoe said there are โhundreds of businessesโ in Canberra just like hers who could operate completely safely online during the lockdown.
โWe have an online store weโve worked really hard to get in place,โ she said.
Currently, restrictions on non-essential businesses donโt allow them to trade safely online via delivery.
Even if they took orders, business owners like Ms Donoghoe arenโt technically able to leave their homes to fill them.
This is despite Canberrans being able to place orders with retailers across Australia and the world.
โYou canโt actually order anything online from a local store, you have to order it from a Sydney or Melbourne store currently, which is ridiculous,โ Ms Donoghoe said.
โWe need to still be able to have some sort of ability to trade online โฆ Our customers want to support us, but thereโs just no way they can with our current rules.โ
Ms Donoghoe described the situation as โfrustratingโ, saying itโs โjust sad that we have to send our business to other areas and not actually support our local communityโ.
โWeโre in a very difficult position, weโve got stuff in place but arenโt allowed to do anything,โ she said.
Floristโs โshop full of stockโ rotting while customers order flowers from Sydney
Owner and operator of established Braddon florist Moxom + Whitney, Loulou Moxom, currently has a โshop full of stockโ worth many thousands of dollars ordered the day before lockdown commenced, wilting in her shut shop.
โIt couldnโt be cancelled,โ Ms Moxom said.
โIโve got stock just rotting and thereโs nothing I can do about it, itโs literally rotting. I canโt store flowers.
โItโs devastating, absolutely devastating.โ
Being unable to trade, Ms Moxom has seen flowers delivered to nearby Braddon residents from a Sydney florist, such is the absurdity of the current restrictions.
โThat has just got โhell noโ written all over it,โ she said.
Like many Canberra retailers well-versed in safe trading, Ms Moxom is calling for a โsensible approachโ to operating conditions for local non-essential businesses.
โAll small business owners are asking is let us trade, let us do what we do, we know how to do it safely, it is our livelihood,โ she said.
Ms Moxom has had over 300 missed calls in the shop for flowers and is turning away emails every day.
โOur services are being asked for,โ she said. โWhere is the harm in that if we can do it safely?โ
While grateful for the government supports available, Ms Moxom said the funding isnโt enough to cover her costs.
โWhat is being offered currently is not enough for me to pay my suppliers for that last lot of flowers we got,โ she said.
โI donโt want to rely on government support โฆ there are other people who need it more than me.โ
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr today said his government is working with โa range of industry associationsโ on Covid-safe arrangements for businesses impacted by lockdown measures.
โThis work is focused on gradual, measured and safe steps that we can take in the future to ease restrictions,โ he said.
He flagged that the restrictions need to โstay as they are for the time beingโ.
โThings like contactless delivery, click and collect, those sorts of options โฆ when case numbers allow it, we can bring that sort of change in,โ he said.
โWhere we are right now, Iโm not going to be standing up here tomorrow and announcing a significant range of changes.โ
For Ms Moxom and many other Canberra retailers, if those changes arenโt implemented soon, they could be too little, too late.
โIf we can open and deliver safely and contactless by Friday or this weekend, weโd still be able to get back on track, but after that, we are stuffed,โ she said.
โThatโs the reality, and I know a lot of other businesses in our position.โ
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