SEVERAL Millicent businesses were forced to close their doors on Monday after a two-hour power outage affected some parts of the central business precinct.
IGA store manager Christine Gibbs said the primary reason for the shop’s closure was to keep staff and customers safe and to ensure no products were spoiled.
“In terms of security, it just was not worth the risk,” she said.
“We did not have our security cameras working, so it was about protecting our staff and customers.”
Ms Gibbs said a generator at the store could only run emergency lights and cash registers.
“Larger supermarkets may have generators that can keep their fridges open but unfortunately here it’s not the case,” she said.
“People coming in and out of the doors would have affected the temperature of the store and therefore the product.
“We wanted to keep the store as cold as possible so that we did not have to lose any inventory.”
Ms Gibbs said some staff stayed in the store in order to do restocking and to “wait out” the blackout while others went to go home.
“It really did affect us in terms of revenue, however thankfully the blackout did not last until 9pm as predicted and we re-opened at 6.15pm,” she said.
“We’re just thankful that things were not worse.”
Ms Gibbs stood by the decision to close, despite some criticism from customers on social media.
“We would have been open if we could but we really wanted to make sure the staff and customers were okay as staying open was a security risk,” she said.
“We also had to think about our store’s products.”
Ms Gibbs said she empathised with Subway, which also had to shut its doors to keep its store temperature regulated, and any other businesses which were affected.
“It was unusual as usually the grid is affected going out to Mount Gambier, but this time it seems to be heading out to the bypass,” she said.
Sportsmans Hotel owner John Bowler said that his business also lost revenue.
“We were hit big time – if there’s no electricity in the taps, after a while everything gets hot,” he said.
Mr Bowler lost no product from the short outage, with all food in the hotel still locked in the freezer.
“We sent the staff home once the power went out as we were notified the power would only come back on at 9pm,” he said.
“We (the Bowlers) decided to go out of town with friends and by the time we were notified the power was back on it was too late.”
Notifications about the power blackout were sent out at 3pm and traffic lights in George Street stopped working during the outage.
The official cause of the blackout was damage to SA Power Networks equipment.
It is the latest blackout since the outage in September which affected 7000 homes, farms and businesses in the broad coastal region between German Flat and Mount Benson.
