'Perfect storm': Suburban Sydney café and bakery owners reveal the true toll of return to office boom
The word 'pivot' took on a meaning beyond Friends' Ross Geller's call of distress after January 25, 2020, seemingly becoming corporations' most-used term – second only to the word 'unprecedented' – by the time after January 25, 2020.
More than three years and many lockdowns on, however, a new turn of phrase has emerged in employers' handbooks: "Return to the office."
Those four words are, for some (including workers who are parents and the Finance Sector Union), a dreaded directive – and not all business owners are happy with the move away from working from home.
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Sina Klug, owner of Nutie and Miss Sina, had to close her Balmain Nutie location this week due to 'massive rent increases but less customers'. Supplied
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It's not news that the hospitality industry, particularly bars and restaurants, was devastated by lockdowns nation-wide – and although bars and restaurants were slow to re-populate when restrictions lifted, cafés, meanwhile, saw a whole new stream of clientele as working from home orders remained.
"Suburbs have really improved the past three years," Sina Klug, owner of gluten-free donut chain Nutie and vegan café and bakery chain Miss Sina, tells 9Honey Kitchen. "It will be felt if we lose that business again."
Klug has felt the sting already with employees being encouraged to adopt the hybrid working model – her habitual torrent of customers "sneaking out while working from home" during the week "multiple times a day for coffees" has quietened to an inconsistent trickle.
Coupled with rent increases and a worsening cost-of-living crisis, Klug has been forced to close Nutie's Balmain location, which had been operating for seven years.
"We did incredibly well during lockdowns, it was crazy, and then we started seeing a strong slip [on] Tuesdays to Thursdays as we found most people go to the office part-time," Klug says.
"It's the same in our Marrickville store, Monday and Friday are pretty busy with people working from home and Tuesdays to Thursdays they go to the office."
For Julie Petrova, owner of French bakery Melia Bakery in Balmain, it's been the same – although early mornings have become busier with the commute to work, late mornings and early afternoons have become "much quieter" than before.
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Melia bakery in Balmain's owner Julie Petrova, pictured here with her husband and business partner, says the only thing keeping her business running is supplying cakes to cafés in the CBD. Supplied
John Roper owns The Local Bar in Rozelle, and says the rising cost of goods plus the push for return to work has hit them hard. Supplied
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"[It's] dramatically more quiet," Petrova tells 9Honey Kitchen. "We are talking about [a] 30 per cent decrease in sales [compared] to [the] previous year."
Petrova says "the only thing that keeps [them] running" is supplying their cakes to cafés in Sydney's CBD.
"[It's] playing havoc with our roster and staff costs because people are going in on different days and we have to cover busy and not so busy mornings with staff that might not be needed," John Roper, owner of The Local Bar in Rozelle, tells 9Honey Kitchen.
For Roper, it's not just the return to work, however, that has him worried – it's a "perfect storm" of "other major influences at play".
"The cost of goods have gone through the roof for hospitality," he says, claiming he now pays 92 per cent more for a shipping container of coffee beans.
Rising costs is affecting Roper two-fold, as not only does he have to pay more for food, power and supplies, but his customers are also finding themselves with less disposable income, meaning his investment isn't paying off as much as it used to.
And with two thirds of Nine.com.au's readers saying in an exclusive survey they think it's time for more employees to return to in-person work, that perfect storm could intensify.
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Juju Ayoub, pictured here with Dough Delights' chef Carol, says their customers' support for the last two years in Summer Hill, NSW has been continuous. Supplied
Dough Delights is a Middle Eastern and Italian bakery. Supplied
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For Juju Ayoub, however, the push for return to work "hasn't changed much" for her Summer Hill bakery Dough Delights.
"[Customers] order their lunch on the way to work as our food can be eaten hot or at room temperature," Ayoub, who opened the bakery two years ago, tells 9Honey Kitchen.
It's a silver lining as local businesses find themselves once again having to 'pivot'.
Ayoub says: "The support has been continuous."
