The Macau Post Daily asked several businesses in the central district this week about how Macau’s COVID-19 outbreak has affected them, with most pointing out that they have been adversely impacted by the situation while some have had few to no sales.
‘Little income’
Leong, the owner of a souvenir shop near the St. Paul’s Ruins, told The Macau Post Daily that he had had “little” income since last week due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, adding that he did not sell even one item today (yesterday). Leong said owning a souvenir shop meant that sales mostly came from tourists. However, due to the impact of the novel coronavirus, he has made fewer sales than before COVID-19 began to affect Macau in early 2020.
In Leong’s perception, no visitors means no sales for his business. Therefore, he said he did not expect the government’s financial subsidies to be enough to cover his monthly rent of over 100,000 patacas. However, Leong added that he hopes Macau could return to the period of “zero COVID-19 cases” to enable more mainlanders to visit Macau again.
When asked about what measures he has carried out to protect himself from COVID-19, Leong said that he did not need to think about any prevention measures as there was “no one” entering his shop.
‘High service fees’
Similarly, Cheang, an owner of a takeaway food outlet in Rua da Barca, told The Macau Post Daily that his sales mostly come from regular customers living nearby. However, Cheang said the sales had been down by half this week as people were afraid of eating outside, with many of them cooking at home instead. He added that even though he has an ordering machine from mFood, through which he can receive orders from customers via their mobile devices, his income did not increase as he needed to pay “high” service fees to the company, while fewer people had been ordering food from mFood due to the high delivery cost of nine patacas per delivery. Different to Leong, Cheang said he hopes the government can implement financial measures as quickly as possible in order to support his monthly rent of 30,000 patacas.
To minimise the risk of getting infected with COVID-19, Cheang said he asks his customers to wear their facemasks properly before they chose the food they want, while keeping a distance from his customers.
‘I don’t know whether I’m open tomorrow or not’
A 44-year-old local pharmacy owner in the central district remarked that the pandemic has had a “terrible” effect on his business, adding that he had no expectations for the next few weeks. “I don’t know whether I’m open tomorrow or not”, he told The Macau Post Daily. He pointed out that to keep his business safe, he was regularly cleaning his shop and maintaining personal hygiene. “Other than that, there’s nothing much we can do.”
On a larger scale, he pointed out that there was a “huge impact” not only on Macau’s economy but on “everything”. “We haven’t seen a situation like this before” even when compared to the previous year, the current situation is getting “worse and worse”, he emphasised.
‘Just believe in the govt’
Business was “difficult”, a local snack shop owner, surnamed Ng, in the central district told The Macau Post Daily, adding that considering the current COVID-19 outbreak, he just has to carry on. The 62-year-old underlined that he has never seen anything like what the pandemic has brought to Macau.
Ng said that there were much fewer people coming to his shop, but that he could still pay his bills and have just enough to “carry on”. He said he only hopes that it will only take a short amount of time to get the situation under control. Moreover, he emphasised that although the pandemic is a global situation, he said that he believed that the city’s situation was better when compared to other parts of the world.
‘Not even one pataca’
Wong, the owner of a clothing shop in the central district, remarked on the outbreak’s impact on her business: “[As] you can see, nobody comes”, she pointed out to The Macau Post Daily, adding that there were no sales, “not even one pataca”. Wong said she hoped that the border opens soon as there would be more business then.
This photo taken yesterday shows some shops near the Ruins of St. Paul’s have been temporarily closed due to the current COVID-19 outbreak. Photo: Yuki Lei
