The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian restaurant owner yesterday said he has closed indefinitely from Monday because curb-side only sales are unsustainable, adding: "You come to a point where it is cheaper to be closed."

Jacques Carlino, owner/operator of the Blue Sail Bar & Grill, told Tribune Business yesterday: “I opened for one week, then I stopped. I have spent three times what I made, so there is no point for me unfortunately...... I think at this point I just told my staff that we are going to sit still and wait.

He explained that he closed on Monday after offering curb-side service for the week of October 12 to October 16. This, Mr Carlino said, did not work out because Friday’s leftover food was wasted and he could not sell his patrons old produce.

"I gave all of my food away I had from Friday, and closed my doors and decided to stay closed," he added. "We were doing the take-out and it was just not enough. It is not enough to sustain a restaurant. You come to a point where it is cheaper to be closed.

“Even if you still have your regular business you still have utilities. Then you have to buy food, and not sell it. Then it goes into your fridge over the weekend, and Saturday and Sunday, food is staying in your fridge getting old.

"Then you come in on Monday morning. The salad is not as it should be. I know people who might do it, but for me if I come in on Monday morning and I have supplies that have been in my fridge for two-and-a-half days, they are not spot-on to be sold, so I will not sell it. Other people might do it. They might close the door and be open and sell the same old food, but I cannot do that," Mr Carlino added.

“Two days of the week where your food is aging and you have to throw it away, that is too much money. Just too much money to waste. It has to make sense to open. It has to make sense because there is a certain number you have to achieve every day, and if that number is not achieved then it doesn’t make sense.

"Even if I was breaking even and I could give a job to my staff it may be good, but you are not even breaking even you are losing some two thirds of what you have put in, that doesn’t make any sense.”

Mr Carlino continued: "There is no point. We go in, you spend money to buy stuff and looking after the staff, and doing this and that, but at the end there is no money in the till. It is just not enough to justify it, but I am a big operation so in that case I paid my rent, I pay for the staff, I pay for the food, so I never believed in the curb-side.

"I never was a big believer in it, and at this time it assured me that it wasn’t right for me all along. People come to see the ocean when they come to me. You come to see the view, so people will reserve themselves, and when we re-open I hope they will come back.”

Mr Carlino said he had to send staff home with no pay and, while understanding the need for COVID-19 lockdowns, said the major concern for business was the uncertainty they foster and the absence of any strategy to balance economic and health needs.

“The darkness is the problem," he added. "There is a lockdown going on in Ireland. They have been told it is for six weeks. Restaurants in France have been closed, and they have been told it is for two weeks. They have been doing curfews in France where the restaurants close at 9pm, but they are doing it for six weeks.

"They have been told what they are doing, but the total darkness here is the problem because you know what, maybe if I was told that I was going to be like this for two months, I would stick in there with my curb-side another week and see if I can bear it.

"But now, even if I believe we are going to open up on November 1, and they come back and say these restrictions are going to go on for another two weeks, I may also stay shut," Mr Carlino explained. “But if I know now we are going to go into December like this, I may not have shut this week, so the darkness is the problem.

"No communication to the people and I talk as a restaurant owner, but it is the same for the hairdresser who can only do one person per hour. Nobody can make a living and yet it is VAT filing this week. We still have to pay VAT, but how can we if we have been closed more than we have been opened?

"We can’t pay VAT. I don’t see an announcement to business owners in general telling them to not stress about VAT. The Government needs the VAT, but we have been closed more than we have been opened. If you were to count from March to today I think have been closed for four-and-a-half months. How do you expect people to survive? People are going to go down.”

“What we need is for someone to tell us that we are going to shut down the restaurants for two weeks definitely. That’s what we need. You have to give people timeframes on how to manage so they can plan their affairs.”