Home working devastates Glasgow city centre businesses during Covid

Despite easing of Covid restrictions, the loss of office staff to the area has had a “profound” effect on nearby shops and cafes.

Firm bosses have united for a second time this year under the Glasgow City Centre Small Business Alliance to warn more closures loom if additional support is not provided during the pandemic. 

Jim Ronald - who was the co-owner of Food Fillas on Queen Street and on Renfield Street - recently had to let nine members of his staff go after coming to a “crunch point”. 

He said: “We came to an absolute crunch point and had no choice but to close our city centre shops. The support was non-existent for us. We applied for grants but didn’t get anything back – not a penny.

“We were fortunate at the start of Covid as we had money in the bank but not enough to see us through two lockdowns.

“It didn’t just financially hit us either, it hit us mentally too.”

And a further nine members of staff at NY Slice on Sauchiehall Street lost their jobs late last year after the eatery was forced to close its doors for good. 

Owner Chris McColl said: “We opened for a week in the circuit breaker but apart from that, we had been closed since the first lockdown because of the dramatic drop in footfall.

“We relied on nighttime trade and office workers. We only had 20 stools so when everything closed, it was devastating for us. It had a profound effect on business.

“I don’t think anyone got enough support throughout it all. Whatever support there was, it was on a first-come, first-served basis.”

Although easing of tough lockdown restrictions has allowed the reopening of pubs and restaurants, business owners say the city centre is like a “ghost town”. 

Jim added: “There has been no uptake in footfall whatsoever.

“When Primark reopened, we opened early as we expected it to be busy but I think we made around £8 that day so even that was a complete waste of time.

“Most of our customers were bankers of people from the press but even most of them are working from home.

“It’s great that by working from home, they have helped to eradicate the virus but at the same time, they also eradicated business for us in the city centre.”

Asad Iqbal, owner of the Charcoals Restaurants on Renfield Street and at the Trongate, currently faces the dilemma of closing one of his businesses permanently due to the “desperate” lack of footfall. 

He said: “At the moment, we can’t afford to keep both open. It is desperate.

“We’re currently weighing out the long-term choices that we have to make. It has been a really tough time and very hard trying to keep on top of the bills – we’re not even breaking even.

“There has been a massive decline at lunchtime where we would normally be serving customers who work in nearby offices. The city centre is just dead, it’s a complete ghost town and this is even with eased restrictions.

“As soon as people can get back to work and into the office again there will be hope but for now, the future is uncertain.”

The business alliance - covering 90 firms in the area - is calling on the Scottish Government to introduce a specific relief fund designed to help businesses in the city centre.

Amjid Bashir, who owns Newsbox on Queen Street, said: “There simply isn’t enough government support to see us through this. There are so many black holes on the high street and that doesn’t do well for business either – why would people want to come into the area?

“I’m definitely on the brink of closure and literally surviving from week to week. It isn’t a case of if I will close – it is a case of how much longer can we go on like this for?”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We fully understand the challenges facing businesses as we look to balance measures to suppress the virus and protect lives with keeping companies open and trading viably.

“Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have directly benefitted from than £3.7 billion in support. This includes additional financial support to businesses in areas like Glasgow City Council which have remained subject to higher levels of restrictions.

“We increased the Local Authority Discretionary Fund to £120 million to empower local authorities to target funding to businesses that would have otherwise been without financial support. Local authorities have their own individual processes for determining and agreeing where their allocations from the discretionary fund are best targeted to support their local business community.

“We have engaged extensively with businesses during the pandemic, and continue to meet regularly with business representative organisations.”