10/06/2021
On my way to work yesterday I passed a group of ladies, presumably on their holidays, stood outside a cafe at 9.00am, bemoaning it (quite loudly) for not being open yet. That the owners were โmissing a trickโ, โthey must have fancied a lie inโ and โmore fool themโ. As I thought about this more and more as the day went on, it got me really quite angry. That this group of ladies had the audacity to make assumptions about why the cafe wasnโt open - basically because the owners were either too stupid or lazy (or both) to be running their business properly. When the truth for that cafe, like so many others - and pubs, restaurants and bars - is that they are quite probably finding things very hard right now because there are so few staff applying for jobs. A combination of Brexit coupled with months upon months of furlough, giving people in the hospitality industry time and some financial security to go off and explore other careers, has left our industry seriously short staffed. Itโs causing businesses in Tenby and many of my industry friends so much stress. They want to be open. They NEED to be open. But they canโt put themselves, or their remaining teams, through 70+ hour weeks simply to service the pent up demand from the general public for eating out. So this is me just throwing in my tuppence. Please PLEASE be mindful of the challenges facing hospitality and donโt be so quick to judge if you find your favourite spot closed mid-week, slow getting back to your booking enquiry, out of stock of certain menu items or only taking walk ins for the foreseeable. Take it from me, the people who run these places are amongst the most savvy and hardworking youโll ever meet, and if theyโve made a decision to go against the grain and not operate how they always have done, then theyโll have really, seriously thought it through. Weโre always and forever thankful for your support, but please take it a little easy on us all at the moment x
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