Small businesses suffer mask blow
Pauline Dikuelo - Mompati Tlhankane | Monday August 8, 2022 06:00
On Tuesday the Ministry of Health said the wearing of masks in outdoor areas will no longer be mandatory and now small business do not know their next move as the decision came out suddenly.
With some manufacturers having ramped up production and sellers stockpiling masks before the Tuesday announcement, orders have already started to decline.
Both mask manufacturers and small businesses have been producing and selling masks respectively since the darkest days of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
While there is still an existing mask mandate for indoor spaces, the lifting of the outdoor mandate will only hasten the decline of the industry, which has been thriving since 2020.
The dilemma was abruptly thrust upon small business owners who sell masks and for the first time in two years, people can now walk, exercise in outdoor spaces without wearing a mask.
While some people welcomed the move as a relief and part of a return to normalcy, those who are in the business of selling masks went to work Wednesday morning facing another headache. Thirty-six-year old Masego Tiketso who sells masks around Gaborone said she will be forced to find other means of making money following the lifting of the mandatory mask wearing. Tiketso indicated that already she has noticed a decline in the demand for masks.
“I started selling masks together with sweets after I got retrenched in 2019. I was one of the unfortunate people who got retrenched when COVID-19 hit most businesses across the globe,” she said.
“By then I was working full time as a cleaner. Since the announcement this week, I have already started losing customers. Usually, I would sell more than 20 boxes in a day and was making a bit of profit.”
Another seller, Sapelo Mophakedi also shared similar sentiments as Tiketso noting that the proceeds he was getting from selling masks have sustained him so far. He usually buys his stock in bulk from Oriental plaza to resell for profit.
“I go from house-to-house to sell masks and the business was booming until the announcement. I know people are usually busy and some barely have time to go to the shops, so I was bringing convenience to their lives,” Mophakedi said.
“When the announcement was made, I had just sold three boxes in one of the homes, the customer quickly demanded her money.”
Already fearing that her company will become a shadow of what it was, one local shop owner who has been selling masks in bulk expressed her displeasure in the announcement.
She lamented that they could have been given a month’s notice because they had already stockpiled masks in the warehouses. She said more orders are already en route to Botswana.
“This is not good at all, we have made orders, and what are we going to do with them because the demand has already started to decline? Very soon it will get worse because they will stop the use of face masks completely,” the shop owner who did not want to be identified said.
Many restaurants have been navigating their mask policies based on personal choice or risk tolerance.
For retailers they are faced with another dilemma thinking hard, as they have to thread a very fine needle between the need for safety and the need for revenue.
They have to accommodate both vaccinated and unvaccinated customers. “We are faced with a dilemma as we have customers who didn’t want to wear face masks during the time when people were dying like flies. These are the people who are not even vaccinated, but they are our customers,” the shop owner added.
While the Tuesday announcement dealt a blow to small mask traders, it is business as usual for manufacturers who are not feeling a pinch.
A local mask manufacturer, Kgathego Sejwe of Itramatic (Pty) Ltd said most of their customers are hospitals and mines. She pointed out that the latter will continue to use masks on daily basis even after the pandemic.
“Our machines can also produce dust masks which are in demand especially in the construction and mining business,” she said.
“The market is still there, we continue to service these businesses because they have been using masks even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
However, Sejwe said as manufacturers they are in talks with government to ban importation of masks.