AS work from home guidance was dropped on January 20, The Northern Echo visited some local independent cafés and businesses to ask what the impact of the lack of office workers in the town has been since the guidance was introduced on December 8 2021 to tackle rising Covid cases.
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Influence Café, 74 Skinnergate
Influence Café opened in 2018 by husband and wife duo Catalin and Mariana Cirimpei. Mr Cirimpei said: “When the work from home guidance was introduced we knew it would be terrible for us. Footfall was down by 40%. We had to let some staff go. All the uncertainty meant that we were struggling from November onwards and it was actually worse than the first few lockdowns. We hope that now more office workers are in the town we will be busier.”
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Relish Sandwich Bar, 72A Skinnergate
Arguably Darlington’s most famous sandwich shop, Relish has struggled since the pandemic started. Manager of Relish, Joanne Ford, said: “I knew when I saw it on the news that this work from home guidance would be a disaster for me. Most of my customers are office workers so with them not being in the town it’s been really difficult. When I heard the work from home guidance was being dropped I though ‘thank goodness.’ Fingers crossed business will be alright now.”
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Vineyard Café, 25 Post House Wynd
Having only opened in May 2021, this not-for-profit café has a strong emphasis on using ethically sourced and sustainable coffee, tea and cakes.
Cafe manager Jonny Hoggett said: “We’ve been really busy. I don’t think the work from home guidance has affected us much. We’ve got wireless chargers that people used when the work from home guidance was issued so they could work here. I wouldn’t say we got loads of people doing that but we had quite a few, as well as students. We’re not expecting much of a change to business now that the work from home guidance has been dropped.”
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Sub Station, 29-31 Post House Wynd
Manager of Sub Stion, Richard Scott, said: “We definitely noticed a difference when office workers started working from home and that meant we didn’t see a lot of our regulars. We were still doing alright with our delivery service which evened things out a bit but of course the delivery company takes a percentage so it wasn’t ideal.”
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