Keep variety on the menu to give small businesses a chance

The cost of ensuring only fully-vaccinated customers enter may be a price cashed-up chains and mega-companies can absorb - but could be the nail in the coffin for already-struggling ma and pa ventures.

No jab, no play? Small businesses are bound to bear the brunt.

Small businesses will wear the cost if governments mandate a ‘vaccinated only’ policy, in which customers are prevented from visiting venues without first proving they have been double-jabbed against Covid-19.

The cost of ensuring this happens, of course, would fall on the business. With many hospitality ventures already buckling under the pressure of lockdowns, reduced revenue and uncertainty, the cost of ensuring only fully-vaccinated customers enter will pose yet another hurdle. It’s a price cashed-up chains might be able to absorb but—when forced on ma and pa joints with ever-shrinking margins—will be yet another nail in the coffin for struggling small businesses.

As always, it’s a different story entirely for a business to introduce its own policy. The freedom to do so (or not do so) enables variety in the market as entities compete to best cater to their customers. Naturally, a variety of options will arise, giving individuals more choices and a better chance of finding an option that reflects their needs to a tee. Ah, the joy of choice. The key is in keeping the choice in the hands of the people. With politicians toying with the process of reopening Australia, the notion of “freedoms of vaccinated people” has become bait. Perhaps the easiest way to create a thriving and varied hospitality market is to allow the people eager to cater to the desires of the hungry diners to do so.

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Read more from the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance HERE