After a difficult two years under coronavirus restrictions, struggling to cope with the rising cost of living and soaring energy bills, hospitality venues across the region are about to face another setback, with events cancelled ahead of the Queen’s funeral on Monday.
Bars and restaurants across the city set to take in trade from the Manchester United v Leeds fixture on Sunday have been left reeling after the match was postponed due to difficulties policing the fixture . Although many hospitality venues will remain open on Monday, when the late monarch’s funeral is set to take place, some have apparently taken the heartbreaking decision to close their doors due to the increase in staffing costs for opening on a Bank Holiday.
Sacha Lord, Night Time Economy Adviser for the city region, told the Manchester Evening News that his office had heard from hospitality businesses making the difficult decision to close due to costs, with dozens of others hit by the postponement of Sunday’s match.
He said: “Some operators are choosing to close out of respect but not that many if I’m being honest. There are people choosing to close not out of respect, but now it’s a bank holiday staffing costs are up to possibly double time, and with all the other costs; energy, cost of living, supply, it’s not viable to open so that’s one of the reasons why you might see more places shut on Monday.
“There’s another blow that we’ve had in Manchester this weekend, postponing the football on Sunday. I get it, I understand the reasons they can’t police it properly but the knock-on effect on hotel rooms, restaurants, bars, and taxis has a huge impact. When United play at home the impact it has on the city is phenomenal, you can’t get a hotel room for love nor money. People go to the game, stay and go out in the evening in town.
“It’s all fair and good to say the games will be rescheduled but that’s not going to pay for the food on the table or the energy bill this week. It will come down the line but when people are living hand to mouth, most people live week to week and are relying on these hours and all of a sudden they’ve gone. That has a huge impact.”
A number of venues will be open on Monday, including all Greene King pubs across Greater Manchester. Several bar chains announced that they will be showing the funeral in the venue to customers, with Stonegate’s 70 pubs across Manchester staying open to honour the Queen’s life and service.
However, Mr Lord doesn’t think hospitality venues will see their usual Bank Holiday surges in customers, as the general feeling across the country is too sombre for the usual festivities. He added: “I was at Warehouse Project this weekend and although we didn’t see any drop in numbers, it does feel like it reminded people of the loss of their grandparents. This weekend there was some sadness for losing the queen.
“Thinking about Bank Holiday standards, I don’t think we’ll see that over this weekend, I really don’t think it will be like that. My mum was crying, I had kids in the office upset about it, it’s affected all generations.”
National Hospitality Day, which was scheduled to take place on Friday, September 16, has been postponed two weeks until September 30 in order to bring the same joy and festivity to the occasion without impeding on the mourning period.
Next week, hospitality businesses are hoping to see new measures introduced in an emergency budget, including clarity on energy costs, a reduction of VAT, and an extension on business rate relief. Without it, Sacha Lord predicts: “seven out of ten pubs won’t make the winter. On a daily basis people are throwing the keys back. After the stress that it’s taken on people’s lives after the last two and a half years there’s another barrier.”
In Manchester city centre, David Fox from Tampopo isn’t expecting to see much of a difference this weekend, opening up the store with the regular Bank Holiday opening times on Monday. He said: “We’re expecting it to be quieter than a normal Bank Holiday Monday, but slightly busier on Sunday than we normally are because people aren’t at work on Monday. Our business doesn’t usually rely on Bank Holidays, it’s not a big taker because we're in the city centre so it’s not like gastropubs in the countryside which see a bigger uplift.
“The postponement of the game will impact trade but that will come back when it’s rescheduled. It’s a mild inconvenience, insignificant compared to the other things over the last few years. It needs to happen so it’s really just ‘keep calm and carry on’ and all that malarkey.”
Over at The Lead Station in Chorlton and the team is opening to give people a place to pay their respects, whilst also looking to raise some money for charity in the late Queen’s honour. Owner Nick De Sousa, who also operates the city centre Tariff & Dale, told the Manchester Evening News : “We will be open and showing our respects because with everybody off I’d imagine people will get together to commemorate the Queen so we would therefore facilitate family and friends who wanted to get together, to close for the entire day would not be that logical.
“We have the Queen’s favourite cocktail with all profits going to Eat Well Manchester so if anybody wants to have a Dubonnet and gin they can raise a glass, and we’ll be making a donation to charity from the day. We’ll be open not to profiteer, we would be open any other bank holiday, but to give everyone a chance to pay their respects. There will be people after the funeral who will want to get together and have a drink.
"We have a private function room upstairs that we’ll look to put the funeral on in so people can come and join us and have a drink after. It’s a small way of staying open whilst also saying something. I’m not sure what town will be like, it’s difficult because it’s unprecedented in modern times, but we’re a place for people to come together, although our plans have yet to be confirmed.”
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