At the end of March, Visit Skellefteå (a jointly owned company between the business community and the municipality) conducted its own local survey to get a snapshot of the visitor industry and trade.
- People who have run businesses throughout their lives and have never had a payment note are now in a situation where they are forced to prioritize which bills to pay, says CEO Maria Broman.
The survey showed that almost half of the companies that responded had lost fifty percent of their sales. Swedish Trade provides roughly the same picture of the country as a whole and warns that three out of ten retailers can be forced to close within two months.
New questionnaire in about a week- We will soon redo our local questionnaire because the one we did last week just gave a snapshot and much has already changed since then, comments Maria Broman.
Her colleague, center manager Maria Rautio, who is out and about to meet business owners, notes that the situation is extremely tough:
- At the same time, there is a tremendous fighting spirit and many good initiatives to try to find ways to cope with this.
One of them is Marie Andersson, who runs a local interior design shop.
- We must try to meet the customers where they are instead, she says and tells how in the clip.