Cost-of-living crisis: How are Wigan businesses affected?

The cost of living has increased dramatically and is having a huge impact on businesses, which are seeing price increases from suppliers and rising energy bills – leaving them to decide whether or not to pass them onto customers.

Many establishments in Wigan are concerned about what will happen, with some struggling to afford to carry on trading.

They also say they are seeing a decline in trade due to customers changing their spending habits.

Staff at Pier Aquatics, near Wallgate, are worried about what the future holds.

Currently they pay around £3,500 a month for energy, but this is expected to increase to around five times that amount

Co-owner Rachael Horrocks said: “Our electricity contract runs out at the end of October and our renewal quote was originally £12,000, but in 24 hours they upped the price again to £15,500 a month.

"We are quite high usage and we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, because we can’t turn anything off.

“Household electrics cap, so you have a cap on household bills. Businesses don’t have a cap so they could continue putting the prices up.

"While households go up in October, business prices will go up and up. There is no limit to how much they could charge us.

"We have already installed LED lights and use air-driven filtration which is already the most economical way to do it.

"We have living things in the shop, there is nothing we can do to make it any cheaper than what we’ve already done.

"We’ve spoken to a few different shops and everyone is in the same boat.

"We’re quite a big shop but there is nothing you can do.

"The aquatic industry is in trouble realistically, because the first thing that would possibly go in the home is the fish tank because it is not essential.

"We’ve already had Brexit and Covid putting the freight prices up and now we’ve got this.”

Neil Woodward, who also owns the shop, added: “We’re selling our own private collection of fish to pay the bills.

"So far we’re not seeing a decline in trade, but I don’t think people have had their renewals yet.

"Businesses are in a whole different ball game compared to home use. I understand people’s electricity bills are going up but not to this degree.

“We’ve got seven guys from Wigan working here and their jobs, as well as ours, are in jeopardy.

"We can’t size down, all these shops run with high usage.

"There is a long way to go but we are in real bad trouble.”

Aquiles Iosada, owner of Atu vegan restaurant on Market Street, in Wigan town centre, said: “Our energy bills have gone up quite a lot and inflation is really bad.

“Waste collection has been increased by 20 per cent as well.

"My suppliers have also put the prices up by 25 to 30 per cent which I can’t add to my prices as people just won’t come in.

"Since the economic crisis started, I have seen a huge decline on sales.”

Sarah Boon, owner of Truly Scrumptious in Aspull, said: “I feel the cost-of-living crisis is having a detrimental effect on the business, purely for the fact that people aren’t eating out as often or treating themselves.

"People are being mindful about what they are spending their money on.

"Running a business, we always have quite a lot of overheads which are increasing massively. We try and not pass this onto the customer but in some respects we have had to."

Paul Prescott, who owns Funky Figures in Makinson Arcade, said: “People are being more cautious. Usually we are really busy through the summer and we have definitely noticed it is much quieter this year.

"I don’t think it helped that last year we had just come out of lockdown so sales were really good.

"I think a lot of shopkeepers like myself put the money back into new stock to try and grow the business. Now we’re carrying a lot of extra stock because sales are down so much this year.

"Our suppliers have put the prices up and that additional cost has been passed in some cases.

"We try and keep the cost of the American sweets as low as we can anyway.

"The increase in our energy bills we have managed to absorb up until now, but we don’t know what will happen.”

However Paul, who runs Wigan Comic Con, says the event was not impacted by the crisis.

He added: “It was the first time it had returned in three years due to the pandemic and that was really successful. We kept the cost low and got a really good attendance.

Colette Alexander, who owns both Lusico Chocolate and Alexander’s Coffee shop at Haigh Woodland Park, said: “We’ve just about made it through Covid and now the cost of living is going up.

"We’ve noticed quite a difference in what our customers spend.

"Following that, we’ve tried not to increase our prices, but we are getting to a point where we will have to.

“If prices keep going up, people do get tighter on their pockets.

"I think we will see more of its impact in the shops, as sweets and chocolate are a luxury, whereas people like going to cafe and having a hot drink.

"Alexander’s will sort of survive the crisis more than Luisco will.”