�� last Friday at midnight. Businesses and residents were given less than 12 hours’ notice that the state would be returning to Stage 4 restrictions, where people are not allowed to leave home unless they’re shopping for essential items, providing or receiving care, exercising or going to permitted work. Many retailers and restaurants that had been counting on big sales over the holiday weekend — which included both Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day — were forced instead to throw out food and flowers before closing their doors to customers.  The Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has estimated the lockdown will cost nearly $1 billion, according to The Age. “For Victoria, this is a real shame as we were so close to offices returning to 75 per cent capacity and we were starting to see some small improvement in our CBD locations,” Antony Hampson, the general manager of Superdry in ANZ, told Inside Retail. Back in the dark The restrictions are a little easier on retailers selling non-perishable goods such as clothing, footwear and toys, since they can continue trading online and through contactless click-and-collect.  Superdry is turning its stores in Victoria into dark stores “where we are able and it is safe to do so”, according to Hampson. And Alquemie Group is offering click-and-collect at Lego Certified Stores, which it operates in ANZ, through the snap lockdown. “Our Lego stores will continue to offer contactless click-and-collect for online orders, which we’ve found to be well received by customers in previous lockdowns,” Facioni said. But this won’t make up for the sales Lego will lose due to store closures.  “Unfortunately, lockdowns do result in lost sales for our businesses, in most cases permanently lost sales,” Facioni said. There’s also the toll that the constant opening and closing of stores is taking on consumer confidence and employees’ mental health.  “For us, unlike food, our stock — footwear — is not perishable, but the psychological effects of stopping and starting wear on the staff and our organisation,” said Tom Kiing, managing director of Atomic Group, which operates Adidas stores in Australia. “Retail is about consumer confidence. Every time we shut down we take two steps back for every step we’ve gained. For us, we need to rebuild like it’s day one again every time we shut.” Pressure on government The impact of the lockdowns has led some retailers to criticise the Victorian Government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. To Kiing, it seems as if government officials have become “immune” to the cost of locking down.  “I think stopping the whole city for five days because of the possibility that we could have a few cases is an extremely blunt tool to use,” he said.  The fact that the snap lockdown was implemented to contain an outbreak at a quarantine hotel, like the state’s three-month lockdown last year, reflects the Victorian Government’s inability to follow its own rules, according to Kiing.  “The protocols and rules may be there, but people are not following them and or trained to administer them. This is the main problem,” he said.  “Like any company, if we cannot implement the rules and procedures we set out to protect our staff, we put them all at risk. The cost of getting things wrong is too high. It seems this standard is required of every Victorian but the government.”