Wednesday, 2 June, 2021
Pakenham
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Cards full of love
Auxiliary marks a century
What lockdown? 18 pages of sport
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Garden vandal anger
Blow to business By Danielle Kutchel, Shelby Brooks and Tyler Lewis
Shoheli Sunjida had just 10 days of trading before Victoria was put into another lockdown. 239342 er supported us a lot, it was beneficial. “There are a lot of businesses that are suffering worse than us, we found that we can reduce the outgoings – we don’t have to keep ordering fresh milk every day, it was one of those things,” she said. Leonie Thorne from Pakenham’s All About Chocolates and Lollies said she has been busy delivering gift hampers to people across the local area. “If you get something nice on your door, you feel good,“ she said.
Ms Thorne said people had been stocking up on bulk lolly orders to get through the lockdown on her new website and they could ’click and collect’ at the store. “Being a micro-business, the lockdown doesn’t affect us too much,“ she said. On Sunday 30 May, the State Government announced a $250.7 million Circuit Breaker Business Support Package which is expected to help to 90,000 Victorian businesses that have been affected by the new restrictions. The package includes $190 million in $2500
Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS grants for businesses, $40.7 million in $3500 grants for liquor licence and food certificate holders and $20 million for event operators. Bass MP Jordan Crugnale said she wanted to thank businesses for doing the right thing by closing. “We are doing what we can to support our business community most affected by this circuit breaker, including those in the hospitality, retail, events and creative industries with further specific and targeted support,“ she said. Continued page 6
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Deciding to start a new business venture in 2021 seemed like a safe undertaking, yet only 10 days after Shoheli Sunjida took over House of Burgers in Berwick, the state was plunged into another lockdown. Ms Sunjida and her husband only began trading from Tuesday 18 May but had several big bookings for the weekend that had to be cancelled with a day’s notice on Thursday 27 May following the seven-day lockdown announcement. She described it as just bad luck and a learning experience, deciding to keep the business open for takeaway. “We felt we had to keep it open for takeaway for the employees to get some work,” she said. “In the food industry, if we’re not selling we can’t employ staff.” Over the weekend of May 29 and 30, Ms Sunjida estimated business was down 60 per cent. While some business owners are persisting with takeaway and delivery options, The Cornerstone in Pakenham has completely shut its doors. Feeling as though the business didn’t have the sales in takeaway and delivery, co-owner Jess Taylor said they were at risk of losing more money by stocking up and paying staff if they didn’t shut the cafe’s doors for the length of the lockdown. “I think it was about half-way through the big down lockdown last year, we realised that the income wasn’t enough to support all of the outgoing, we thought we might be able to save a bit more if we just shut completely,” Ms Taylor said. “It was pretty difficult for them (the staff), a lot of them are university students. Everything was changing for everyone, in a way they still got to stay home and do their studies. “I think having them come in and do nothing, me trying to think of what I can get them to do while there were no customers was a little unfair to waste their time like that. On the financial side, we were lucky because JobKeep-