By Jovita Gaižauskaitė, LRT TV, LRT.lt.
At least five restaurants in Lithuania’s port city of Klaipėda have closed since the start of the year. In search of more affordable premises, businesses are relocating away from the city centre. Meanwhile, customers say eating out is becoming too expensive.
Mindaugas Gedvilas ran a coffee shop for a decade on the port city’s main street, Herkaus Manto. Recently, however, he was forced to relocate.
“Things on Herkaus Manto Street have been stagnating for several years now. You can feel both consumption and footfall declining, so we decided to change location,” says Gedvilas, head of the coffee roastery Musangas.
He tried for six months to run both cafes simultaneously, but investments in the city centre would never have paid off. The new location, however, has proved successful.
In former hangars further from the centre, a dessert bar, a bakery and a catering outlet have opened one after another. Businesses operating in residential buildings say neighbours are disturbed by the smell of roasting coffee or baking pastries, as well as by noise. The biggest problem, however, is parking.
Read more: LRT.LT
