A RIVERLAND pizza bar lost more than half of its weekly trade last week due to the State Government’s sudden statewide lockdown, which was ultimately cut short.
The Loxton Pizza Bar’s busiest days of trade are Thursday, Friday and Saturday – the three days the state was in lockdown – which account for 60 to 70 per cent of its weekly trade.
Owner Paul Unferdorben said the store received its weekly order of $15,000 of food the day before lockdown began.
“When our order came in and we had just been told the state was going into lockdown, all we could think of was ‘oh, dear’,” he said.
“Most of the fresh fruit, vegetables and stuff we had prepared for the following days had to be thrown out.
“We were lucky we had a pretty reasonable freezer capacity and we could freeze a lot of our stock.
“But if lockdown had gone for as long as what they originally said – the full week and possibly the week after – we would’ve been throwing away thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of food.”
Mr Unferdorben said he was grateful lockdown was cut short.
“Because it (lockdown) was shortened, we saved a lot of food and business,” he said.
“Considering the way it’s all gone, it could’ve been a lot worse.
“If it went for a few more weeks, we would’ve seen a lot of places not bother to reopen because I think many places had used up a lot of cash reserves – leaving them with pretty much nothing left.
“Hopefully the State Government can come up with some sort of (assistance) package for the hospitality industry because if you’ve got no revenue and full-time staff that you need to pay – along with rent and other things – it could be an issue.”