Cuba Street retailers react to Wellington's CBD struggles

Wellington businesses say high rents, expensive groceries and car parking costs have sucked life out of the CBD, leaving businesses struggling with few customers.

Post-Covid-19 they say the vibe has been off, with the area feeling less safe and more people choosing to stay away.

Cuba Street has been long-known as the lively heart of the Wellington CBD, bustling with locals and tourists visiting locally owned cafes, shops and bars.

But Ainsley Robinson, manager of Olive — a café and restaurant on Cuba Street — told Checkpoint the street had changed, as it had been especially quiet the past few months, forcing the café to raise prices and cut staff hours.

"I've been working here for the last couple of years and when I started it used to be busy, busy, busy all the time. And now, this is what we're looking like, so definitely things are dying down a lot and the streets aren't busy anymore."

The café usually would have bookings as large as 70 people, but in the last few months the largest they have had is 20.

She said because of the current high cost of living, people could not afford to go out.

"We're having to cut down everyone's hours as well and we can't afford to go out either," she said. "It's just kind of a bit of a cycle at the moment, and we're having to put up prices for food because we don't have that many customers, which is again not bringing in more customers."

Olive recently hired more part-time staff as it could not afford to give full-time hours to multiple people.

"It feels really bad with regulars when you start charging them a little bit more, a mocha that's takeaway is now $8, which is crazy, but that's the same with everywhere."

Teesha Grundy, manager of Fidel's — another café on Cuba Street — said bringing in SuperGold card and student discounts had helped to bring in more customers, but they were still struggling.

"Everything's more expensive, and even though compared to a lot of places on the street arguably we're doing okay, but actually when you look at the spreadsheets and all of the stuff, we are only just staying open."

Coming into the city centre had become unaffordable for many people, she said, because of how expensive it was to park, and accessibility had become limited. She said Wellington had completely changed compared to 10 years ago when she first moved there.

"When things feel really hard, everyone wants to come into the centre of the city, we used to have free Wi-Fi everywhere," she said.

"You had all these things that really made the CBD an accessible place for people to be and just hang out without necessarily even having a reason to be here, whereas now people don't come into town unless they have a reason to — and that's really sad."

Grace Smith, boss of second-hand clothing store Paper Bag Princess on Cuba Street, said during the day the CBD was dead, with many shops having closed.

"It really breaks my heart. You're walking down Cuba St, there used to be the Everyday Wines, Carly Harris and then a few further down on Cuba Street," she said.

"They weren't other stores that I'd go into, but I'd see them walking to work every day and now they're all closed down."

Recently, Pandoro bakery — which owned three cafes in the Wellington CBD — announced the closure of all its Wellington cafés after 28 years. More than 20 staff lost their jobs.

Popular café Egmont Street Eatery and florist Yvette Edwards have also faced recent closures.

Smith said safety was another issue in the CBD that could be keeping people away. Although she felt safe in the CBD, she had noticed a shift and was not sure everyone else did.

"You'll just be a bit more cautious going about your day. It's not like you're going to get attacked or anything like that, it's just different."

Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Arcus said people working from home, cost of living and interest rates were why businesses are struggling.

He said for any businesses that were struggling they should speak up and reach out to the Chamber of Commerce for support.

For businesses affected by construction around the city, he said he would like to see a compensation package put together by the council including rent release.

By Bella Craig of rnz.co.nz

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