DEIRDRE GRAHAM
THE manager of a local community club has pledged to “make the best of a bad situation”, despite potentially losing up to $18,000 in sales via SA’s snap seven-day lockdown, announced yesterday.
As Riverland businesses lurched from being an official no-go zone on Monday, to dealing with a complete lockdown yesterday, Neville Tschirpig said the Lyrup Club would keep selling takeaway food and alcohol, but would be left out of pocket due to events – such as eightball and a special function scheduled for Sunday – being cancelled.
“Seven days is better than five weeks – that means we can stay in business,” Mr Tschirpig said.
“But this is just another setback after things improving greatly over the last 18 months.
“When times are tough and every dollar is so important… you have to pay the bills whether you are open or not.”
Some Riverland hospitality outlets were yesterday scrambling to prepare for the week ahead, after Premier Steven Marshall announced a Level 5 lockdown would be effective from 6pm.
Mr Tschirpig said his club was in the “lucky” position to be able to continue takeaway trade – and offer staff some hours.
“We will open for a couple of hours, say from 4pm to 7pm on maybe Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, so people can come in and get some takeaway food and some drinks,” he said.
“That is all you can do, and that gives our staff just a few hours, and allows us to move some stock that we have here on hand.”
While Mr Tschirpig said he would have preferred a system where businesses were given a couple of days’ notice, he understood the need for an immediate shutdown.
“I applaud the (SA) Government on the stance they made, and how quickly they moved on it,” he said.
“I believe that the SA Premier Steven Marshall has done better than pretty well any state, and I support him with his decision.
“It is a small bit to pay for long-term gain.”
However, as he weighed up whether he would have to stand down a few casuals for the week, Mr Tschirpig said allowing people to consume food and alcohol inside within a four-square-metre distance would have been preferable.
“That for us would have been fine,” he said. “It would have enabled us to have 160 inside the club, and that... would have been good.”
In the meantime Mr Tschirpig has instructed his chef to use up food already in stock.