Burstadt » The fight against the coronavirus is also an existential struggle for some: some companies currently have little or no income. You have to register for short-time work. Unemployment is also at risk if the crisis lasts for months. Burkhard Vetter, the owner of two fashion stores, is affected by the crisis, for example.
Don’t let your head hang despite Corona. That is Burkhard Vetter’s motto. He had to close both of his fashion stores due to the pandemic. In the second half of March, sales fell by 95 percent. “The situation is serious, but not hopeless,” says Vetter. You can also order from him over the Internet, but his regular customers prefer to come to the shop, look around and try on. As an alternative, Vetter offers its regular customers free delivery – a personal compilation of current brand fashion. If he is not satisfied, he has the parcel picked up again. The offer is not yet being used as he hoped.
Burkhard Vetter is a realist. He knows that people have other concerns than fashion at the moment. And that they also have little opportunity to go out with new clothes. There are no events. He, therefore, believes that online retailers do not benefit from the closed fashion stores either.
Vetter has applied for short-time work for his three employees in the fashion house. He has nothing to do for a total of six 450-euro forces – and therefore sent them home. Burkhard Vetter assumes that the shops will remain closed even after April 19.
Even if a company has significantly lower wage costs due to short-time work and non-employment of temporary workers – many expenses remain rent, electricity, tax consultants and other things. That is why Burkhard Vetter, like other entrepreneurs, sat down on the PC to apply for state aid. A company with up to five permanent employees can get 10,000 euros. But the application was not a pleasure, says Vetter: “I was on the website of the Kassel district council for almost eight hours, the page kept collapsing. At some point it worked out, I had to provide a lot of information and swear affidavits.”
A lot of bureaucracy for applications of loans
Now he hopes that emergency aid will flow soon. It is important to cousins that everyone receives their payments on time. Because he knows that behind every payment are people who make a living. Burkhard Vetter was annoyed by the political statement that companies could apply for KfW loans “quickly and unbureaucratically”. “It runs through the house banks and is just as bureaucratic as with any other loan application,” says the Burstadter entrepreneur.
Vetter is considering whether he should also sell protective masks since it cannot be ruled out that they will become mandatory. But nothing is currently available on the market. And he doesn’t want to charge excessive prices either. He does not want to enrich himself with his fellow men in this time of crisis.
