Local businesses in downtown Faro it seeks to resist restrictions imposed by the fight against the covid-19 pandemic, and even the longest-running store in the city center keeps its doors open and plans for the future.
With over 100 years of existence, Casa Verde is a landmark in the so-called “street of stores” in the Algarve capital, just by entering the architecture, the wood that decorates it or the smell of the fabrics lead to visits with grandma or the mother to the old haberdashery.
Closed by government imposition, the store's doors reopened as soon as “it was possible”, despite the restrictions and uncertainties posed by the measures to combat the covid-19 pandemic, told Lusa the manager, Fernando Matos.
“We're going to put up with minimally, but it's not easy for anyone. You can see from the size of the 'animal' [store] that what is here is not easy. Instead of buying, we keep [the stock] in our heads, and then make ends meet. It's all a stick with two ends”, he vents.
For Fernando Matos, it will not be worth “opening now to save the situation” if they have to close again. Since it was decided to start a new phase of disconfinement, people should “protect themselves” as much as possible, so that it is not necessary to close again, which “would not be easy at all”.
Employees who were on 'lay-off' returned as soon as the activity resumed, with no cuts in staff, and despite the few customers in the store, they do not stop for a minute, with the time being used to “take inventory”.
Between fabrics by the meter, shirts, underwear and a huge palette of ribbons or button formats, access to part of the store had to be conditioned so that it could fit into establishments up to 200 square meters whose opening was authorized in the second phase of disconfinement.
The current movement allows “to make ends meet” and keep all employees active, working “as they can”, but Fernando Matos says he feels that the “economy had a very sharp drop in this second phase”, compared to last year.
It is at the opposite end of the “street of stores”, in a more modern area, that the Lusa agency report finds another example of resilience: one of the 11 stores of a chain of shoe stores in the Algarve that will keep “all 34 employees”, reveals the owner to Lusa.
In a business whose dynamics depends on changes in the “season”, there was a need to manage the collections “in light of the current situation” using “dialogue” and the “understanding” of suppliers, pointed out Manuel Silvestre.
“The orders were all already placed. We caused some difficulties for some of our suppliers and sought an understanding to reduce quantities. Some will remain and ended up offering us a longer period [to pay],” he says.
At the store, customers are already looking for shoes from the new summer collection, but, in relation to the future, the reality of countries that send tourists and the fight against the pandemic do not bring “restraint” to Manuel Silvestre, who considers that only at the “end of the summer, early winter” the situation may “begin to ease”.
The Association of Commerce and Services of the Algarve Region (ACRAL) is monitoring the difficulties of the sector and has a survey on the ground to survey the reality and main needs of entrepreneurs.
The president of ACRAL, Paulo Alentejano, points out to Lusa that the vast majority of trade and services will "retake and open", but warns of the "great uncertainty in the air" about whether or not there will be a new wave, which could be “demolition and compromising the summer”.
For that responsible, there is the "expectation" that the summer may have movement and it will be possible to "recover something" from a situation that has been "worsened in recent months".
If this does not happen, the region will go into its “third consecutive winter”, leading to the “closure of companies and redundancies” and a “possible social crisis”.
“There were companies that have already closed. Honestly, I think that people are trying their last oxygen balloon in this recovery and, if there is a summer that 'sees', it saves the situation”, he calculates.
The official claims that there are, at this moment, "several issues on the table", such as the moratoriums, which "must have to be extended" or the 'lay off' situation that "has to be framed with the next low season".
“We are currently living in great uncertainty, we cannot see the future and consolidate a business plan to move forward in the coming months, because we do not know what to expect”, emphasizes the president of ACRAL.
As for the support program for the region announced in July 2020 by the Government, Paulo Alentejano says that “nothing has reached the companies” and that nothing is in perspective in the short term, comparing the situation to the “cure that arrives after the patient has already died”.
“The Algarve has its own characteristics, it has a comprehensive tourism sector that cuts across the entire economy and is suffering from one end to the other, in all sectors”, he laments.
ACRAL is going to create a support office for small entrepreneurs, who often do not have “time and access to legislation” which is “loose, uncoordinated and barely understandable”.
“There is a general uncertainty regarding the entire process, which does not allow us to foresee anything for the future. We are in a situation of 'pushing with the belly' and seeing daily how business is being managed”, he concludes.
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