Vilnius businessmen make no secret of their anger: the old town is doomed to collapse

“As of the first day of September we had earned less than 828 thousand less, which means that there will be a million less per year. That’s a lot. There are many such companies, Lithuania will lose a lot of money “, – says the businesswoman in the program” Delfi diena “.

“On March 15, before the quarantine, we had 51 employees, today we only have 37. Look at how many people were unemployed. Because they are no longer necessary ”, adds I. Marozienė.

According to her, every day in August, the restaurant earned about 3,400 euros less, it does not sell many products. However, staff salaries remained the same as last year.

“Salaries in July were exactly the same as a year ago. If it had been a normal year, they would have gone up, but keeping it the same was a challenge,” explains the restaurant owner.

According to her, a large part of the customers were lost not only because of the virus, but also because of the inconvenience of communication and the lack of parking spaces in the old town of Vilnius.

“We are told that the circular traffic was made to destroy cars in the old town. Okay, we will eradicate them, but people are not walking due to cold weather at the moment. The old town is completely doomed to collapse. No one will go to the old town, they will die until spring, ”says I. Marozienė.

According to her, winter is increasingly difficult and for many companies it can become a decisive challenge: “Winter will be very difficult and the old town will change completely. You will find many closed spaces. “

Vytautas Kratulis, director of the Huracan Caffee coffee network, agrees that communication in the city is not good and that entrepreneurs suffer as a result.

“Castle Street is completely empty. If there are decisions of this type that make the old town uncomfortable, what to go to? If we talk about public transport, communication in the city, then it is not good,” says V. Kratulis.

“In terms of infrastructure, I don’t see anything to improve in Vilnius. As a Vilnius resident, I would like Vilnius to be more comfortable,” he adds.

However, V. Kratulis says that he does not realize that people have less money. According to him, the adaptation to the conditions of the pandemic was quite successful, he said.

“The task of our businesses is to adapt, we adapt. And then there is some looping traffic, and it doesn’t help at all, “says the director of the coffee network.

„[Artėjant žiemai] There are plans, God forbid, so that there are no more restrictions ”, says V. Kratulis in the program“ Delfi diena ”.