The Sydney suburbs experiencing a cafe spending boom during COVID-19
At Cafe Sorelle, in Sydney's east, sit-down lunches have made way for take-home dinner packages, as the amount of money people are spending at their local cafes has doubled in some suburbs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Salvatore Gallifuoco, who has owned the Waverley cafe for 16
years, said support from residents and the local council has helped, partially,
make up for losses from social distancing requirements in cafes and
restaurants.
"Obviously we've had a lot more people around because
more people are working from home," he said.
"We've had a few take-home dinner packages that we try
to put together, cafes have had to adapt to the situation and they've done
well, especially around here.
"Locals stay local and help spend at local cafes,
there's a very village atmosphere that we've got."
And it's not just in the eastern suburbs that people are flocking
to their local cafe.
Spending at cafes has increased significantly across suburbs
outside the inner city, as working from home shifts consumption patterns, the
latest figures from Accenture's analytics firm AlphaBeta and credit bureau
illion show.
Per capita spending in cafes in the Blue Mountains, North
Sydney and Mosman local government areas has increased by more than 90 per cent
between November 2019 and July 2020.
Spending in other suburbs in the city's east and west
including Penrith, Waverley and the Hills has also increased by more than 50
per cent.
At the same time, cafe expenditure has gone backwards in
some suburbs, including a 28 per cent decline in Rockdale, an 11 per cent fall
in Botany Bay, a 10 per cent fall in Ku-ring-gai and a 7 per cent decline in
the Inner West.
Sydney and Ryde have recorded spending increases far below
average at 7 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.
Director of AlphaBeta Andrew Charlton said spending habits
during office hours have shifted from business districts to suburban cafes as a
result of working from home.
"People are on zoom call after zoom call and they're
desperate to get out and have a coffee, just as they would if they were in the
office," he said.
"If CBD workers had big expenditures at work and bought
lunches and coffees, then their local cafes have benefited from that."
Mr Charlton said cafes in business districts and areas near
the airport have experienced the biggest losses during the pandemic.
He said the trend was likely to continue as workplaces
became more flexible in the longer term and was already leading to new ways of
operating for cafes.
"Lots of cafes are adjusting their offerings, some have
already ramped up takeaway options and are doing much more CBD-style trade with
coffees and quick lunches," Mr Charlton said.
"They're also shifting their hours, they're much busier
at peak office times with the 10am rush and lunchtime runs."
Regions outside Sydney have also seen significant increases in cafe spending, with the Wollondilly local government area to the west of Campbelltown recording the biggest increase in the state of 103 per cent between November and July.
Despite this, Mr Gallifuoco said many cafes would still
struggle once various support measures were lifted.
"Overall, we're still down on earnings because we don't
get people sitting down having longer lunches or big breakfasts, and we can
only get 10 or 12 people inside rather than the 35 we could have before,"
he said. Finished with sophisticated cafe furniture
and minimalist timber
chairs.
Overall patterns of spending during the pandemic show that
the biggest per capita increase in expenditure has been on food delivery, which
was up 351 per cent by the end of August compared to baseline levels, AlphaBeta
and illion figures show.
Expenditure on furniture and office supplies was up 77 per
cent and spending on health services was up 39 per cent.
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