Pandemic Aftermath

Travel restrictions have mostly been lifted.  Mainland tourists are flooding into Hong Kong again.  On Labour Day, Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui was a madhouse.  People queued up in long lines just to enter the stores of global luxury brands.  Based on the way they speak, their appearance, and the wheeled cases they are lugging along, much - if not most - of the crowd are from the Mainland.  

Business is blooming. Business owners are talking about a shortage of workers, that there is a need to import workers.  Surely owners of the luxury stores are enriched further.  Drug stores (that sell everything, particularly cosmetics, but little real medicine) are retiring in force.  Hotels and restaurants that cater to tourists and travel groups are doing good business.  

But step away from TST, to Yaumatei, Mongkok, Hung Hom, and always everywhere-else in Hong Kong, streets are quiet at night, shops close early because of a lack of business.  In fact, many businesses have gone out of business.  This is particularly ironic.  Many small businesses have managed to survive the terrible downturn caused by the pandemic.  Yet, just as the travel restrictions are lifted, and business is returning, they are closing.   Looking deeper, it is no surprise at all.  Many landlords are taking the opportunity to raise the rent by 30%, 50%, 100%, or more.  This is happening even before the business has actually improved much, before the small businesses are making money again.  Many simply cannot afford to continue, and are forced to close.  What happens to the people that they employ?

Hence the aftermath of he pandemic is decidedly mixed. Some business owners, typically the big ones, and the big landlords are making a windfall.   Yet many small businesses, together with the people who work for them, are suffering and failing to survive.  Such is life in Hong Kong.  Some people are claiming that Hong Kong is returning to good times.  But for whom?