Just a thought
It was good to see the square busy yesterday evening, although it was a double-edged sword because there were empty seats to keep some people distanced from each other. Empty seats that could have been filled by other punters. Not that everyone is taking the distancing advice as seriously as they should. Symi is only safe for as long as people remain unselfishly aware of others. Just because you’ve filled in a form and are prepared to quarantine when you get home if necessary, doesn’t mean you’re not passing along the virus you might have caught on the plane. In the same worrying way, it was also good to hear the sound of cheering and laughing coming from one of the harbour bars at five the other morning. Quite a few people were having fun down there and, by the sound of it, had been all night. I assume they were standing several feet away from each other and not touching.
The double-edged part is, of course, that businesses are desperate for custom, but don’t have enough. A few week’s of semi-reasonable trade isn’t going to cover the overheads already owed and the debts that will be accumulated over the winter with no hope of paying them off for some time, if at all. I imagine that for those who don’t own their own premises, the rent is one of the biggest bills. I happen to know one business up here whose rent was €700 a month, 12 months a year (€8,000 p/a), and that was about eight years ago. Another was €1,000 per month or €12,000 a year. That’s in the village. I hate to think what they are like in the harbour. Add on the other overheads, tax etc., and you start to see how one or two ‘good’ months in a season isn’t going to be a drop in the Aegean compared to a ‘normal’ season.
Maybe not the cheeriest way to start the week, but I just woke up with that thought in my head and wanted to share. Some readers might find it of interest.
