Easter 2021 has been cancelled! Sorry guys. Brogad (Prime Minister Andrew Holness) came through with the whip!  But what will this mean for business and your money? 

First let’s go over the new measures. And it’s a lot!  The biggest thing that everybody is talking about today is the tighter curfew. Boy, I had to listen to Andrew a few times to get it. Nah lie, it was a bit confusing at first, but the main change is the weekend lockdowns and it starts from this Friday, March 26.  During the week, the curfew will still be from 8pm to 5am.

Friday, March 26 – Monday, March 29

Friday is supposed to be a half day for most office workers. The Prime Minister said work should stop at noon so that people can use the rest of the day to go shopping, since the lockdown will basically be all weekend. So you already know, Friday is gonna be madness on the roads and at the stores. I will be avoiding at all costs and try to get my shopping done in the week, or maybe use delivery services such as Mailpac Local if I wanna do a PriceSmart run. Yeah it’s more expensive, but at this point I’d rather save time than money, and also take less risk with my health. Some things are worth spending on.

So now Saturday, the curfew starts at midday. So you’ll have Saturday morning to get some shopping done, another day of madness because it’s also payday weekend for most people. Not me and the road – no sah! I’ll be staying my behind at home! And then the curfew runs all day Sunday, so those of you who don’t cook, better go find something from Saturday morning and put it up for Sunday because everywhere will be locked. You won’t be able to move again until 5am Monday morning.

Easter weekend

The same applies for the following weekend which is Easter weekend, except that this arrangement starts from Thursday because remember that Friday, April 1, will be Good Friday. So Holy Thursday, businesses supposed to close at noon so people can get little shopping in for the long weekend. Friday, the curfew is all day. Saturday, you’ll have Saturday morning only to go on the road before the curfew starts at midday. Then Sunday and Monday, curfew is all day.

Friday, April 9 – Monday, April 12

And then the next weekend again, we have half day work Friday with the curfew going from 8pm to 5am Saturday. Saturday, the curfew starts at midday again and runs whole day Sunday until 5 o’clock Monday morning. Then we go back to regular programming with the nightly curfews starting at 8. And depending on how things go with the virus, they might loosen or tighten restrictions after that. So guys, please behave! It’s been a whole year and I feel like I can’t take it anymore.  Give us free!! Jeez!

Adjust your travel plans accordingly

So for those of you who were planning to travel for the Easter holiday, the airports will still be open, and you will be able to travel during curfew hours to get to the airport. BUT if you were planning a staycation at one of the local resorts, you basically need to leave before curfew.

You know this is a really tough situation. This will definitely hit a lot of businesses very hard, especially those that depend on weekend sales. I really feel it for a lot of people. It’s setting us back economically. I saw some people saying they now might need to migrate if they can’t make a living here, so that’s sad. We already saw how Palace had to close, and they’re not the only ones. A lot of jobs are going. But on the other hand, our health care system is officially overwhelmed. More people need beds than we have available at the hospitals and health case systems. And we’ve now exceeded five hundred deaths. Very, very sad. 

E-Commerce National Delivery Solution (ENDS)

On a positive note, one good thing I heard out of the PM’s press conference though is this new app called ENDS. It’s actually developed by Wipay. Remember I interviewed them a couple of times already on Taking Stock.  Click here and scroll to 01:09:01 to see how it will work.

Looks cool. It’s gonna give services like Quickplate and 7Krave a run for their money.  I didn’t hear any mention of fees though, but I’m sure those taxi operators and couriers are gonna have their markups. Let’s see if they actually get mass use though. A lot of small businesses like those pan chicken men don’t have websites. Wipay says they will set them up online, I guess for a small fee of course. This will allow them to stay open til midnight. They’re piloting this in Portmore starting this weekend, March 26. So let’s see how that goes. I love the use of tech, just a little skeptical, though hopeful about adoption.

So what do you guys think about the new measures. Is it necessary or do you think they’ve gone too far this time? Leave your comments in the description below. 

Categories: MoneyMondaysJA