Comment: Businesses still being hit

Are the new jobs really going to be there?

Covid has not gone away and it is still having an impact on small businesses. | T. AYUGA

Humphrey CarterPalma28/02/2022 10:15

The pandemic may be easing, but it is not over and a large number of people are still very concerned about Covid and small businesses in Majorca are continuing to pay the price for the uncertainty.

A friend of mine who runs a well established hair salon in Palma told me this week that this February has been just as bad as when they were allowed to open mid-pandemic.

Cancellations are still the fear factor and she said that at least one or two appointments were being cancelled every day and many by repeat clients who have been using her salon for years.

She also received further bad news this week - the rent has been increased. Apart from herself and her son, only two others work in the salon and she said that come Monday, the end of the month, there will be just enough money in the till to cover the wages, although she may have to take a cut in order not to pass the fall in takings on to the rest of the staff. And this is not an isolated case.

After six months of negotiations another friend of mine has finally managed to get his small Palma bar which specialises in beers from all over the world off his shoulders. Yes, he is glad to have got rid, but he doesn’t know what he is going to do next, where his next income is going to come from.

He’s highly experienced in the hostelry industry, but are the new jobs really going to be there?

We’re not out of the woods yet.