Shutting up shop is not an option for Mama-P.
The Charlestown-based business, like many others, has taken a massive hit during the second wave of COVID-19 in the Hunter.
Sales have dropped, staff hours have cut back and many aspects of the coffee shop are not running as usual.
However, owners James and Kylie Pheils say, despite the uncertainty, they are determined to stay open to support their staff and the community.
“Our business has dropped by 50%, we also have no dine in which makes it really tough,” James said.
“It’s really quiet, there’s way less people out because of the lockdown rules but we want to try and stay open as much as we can for our community but it has been hard.
“We lost a lot of business from the Sydney lockdown and, now, we’ve lost even more.”
The husband-and-wife team believes the government needs to be doing more to support small businesses.
“They must make JobKeeper more accessible,” James said.
“Last time when we had it, it helped us tremendously, it was one the better things they’ve done for small businesses.
“But, this time around they are very reluctant to help.”
According to Kylie there is a lot of uncertainty around what the government can assist businesses with.
“Because we have decided to remain here for the community and our staff, we receive hardly any benefit from the government,” she said.
“We thought: ‘do we just close down?’
“But we have so many people who need a coffee and we can provide healthy food.
“There are plenty of big corporations who stay open but what they serve is really unhealthy.
“We’re trying to help the health of the community by serving nourishing food.
“Also, we are still trying to do what we can because we have bills to pay.
“Nothing else stops, we still have to pay rent and electricity.”
Moving forward the pair are trying to remain optimistic.
“This is all going to end one day and we’re going to get back to some kind of new normal which will benefit everybody,” Kylie said.
“Last lockdown we just kept going,” James added.
“We had no idea what was happening but we made a decision because operating is pretty important for us and for our staff.
“We will just keep going until it becomes financially unviable to continue, we have survived so much as a business.”
The duo adds the best thing the community can do during this time is to support local.
“Not everyone has got a lot of excess cash to throw around at the moment but the community can support us by supporting local small businesses and not major corporations,” Kylie explained.
“We have great support from our community and if we didn’t have that we couldn’t remain open, it is our staff and community that keeps us going.”
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