The owner of Auckland delicatessen Blackforest Gourmet says he may have to shut up shop amid “challenging times”, which for small businesses like his, feel “worse than Covid”. Damien de Jong bought the North Shore deli with his wife in 2019. It’s been operating for more than 20 years, with the son of the original owner now running the butchery side of the business, based in Tauranga and supplying meats to the Albany shop.
Since then, de Jong has run the business with part-time staff and a customer base of faithful regulars, some of whom have been coming to the shop for over a decade. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, de Jong had to shut up shop and feared he would “lose everything”. However, the deli side of the business was able to reopen for online orders and deliveries as an essential service.
But now amid a recession and job losses across all sectors, de Jong admits it’s more of a struggle than ever to keep the doors open. “It’s even worse than Covid, we don’t have the extra help that we had during Covid,” he tells the Herald . The past couple of years have seen food prices go up, inflation skyrocket and the cost of living increase.
“The nature of our business means that the only way we can cover our costs is to raise prices. But because of what we sell, you’re not going to come to us every day, but maybe every couple of weeks,” de Jong points out. “And so through no fault of our customers, a lot of them have said, ‘well, we can’t.
