A large power outage causes a lot of nuisance on Friday evening in, among others, Sint-Michielsgestel, Vught, Den Bosch and surrounding areas. Freezers, ovens and cash registers no longer do it, but entrepreneurs try to make the best of it. “Free ice cream!”
The current was out of five in Den Bosch, Vught, Cromvoirt, Boxtel, Esch, Sint-Michielsgestel, Den Dungen and Berlicum around ten past five. The consequences are noticeable in the hospitality industry in particular.
Dafne Habraken from the cheese snack in Sint-Michielsgestel was just scooping in salads when the power fell out. “Oh dear, panic, I thought. And then I looked at the other side and saw that it was dark everywhere. So it wasn’t me,” she says. Habraken had customers in the store at that time. She could still send it a payment request via the Tikkie app. Then nobody came in anymore. “Because everyone sees that it is ready for now.”
She is worried about her stock. “If it takes a long time, I might have to throw away three -quarters of the stock. So I hope it will be resolved soon.” Until then she keeps waiting. She does not want to run a risk that cheese will be spoiled.
“When I noticed we had no internet, I got angry.”
For children in the area, the malfunction brings unexpected pleasure. Free ice is distributed at IJsbar80. “We want to get rid of this as soon as possible,” says Steffie Olijslagers employee. “All the ice in the display case has to go, because that will not be good anymore. You have to solve it, so we bring ice from the freezer to a colleague in Boxtel.”
Children from the village certainly like it. “Yes nice, free ice!” Says one of them. A girl likes the free ice creams, but it is disappointing. “Now I can’t play on my iPad,” she says. “When I noticed that we no longer had the internet, I got angry. But I immediately ran here.”
At Pizzeria La Rivetta in Sint-Michielsgestel it is dark. “The light is off. The pizza oven, chip shop and grill no longer do it. We had two customers who had ordered Pizza when our oven dropped out,” says Milou van Hamond. “We can sell ice creams, but we can’t do more than that now. The ice remains cold for quite a long time, but if it takes a long time, it might have melted. Many customers have tried to order a pizza because they cannot cook at home. But sorry, we don’t have any power either.”
Dark everywhere
They also suffer from the current at restaurant De Rosier in Vught. “Nothing does it more. The lamps and the cash register are off. We have no fire and we cannot serve hot food, but we anticipate drinking and cold salads,” says Sven van de Rosier. “We have just introduced our summer card so we have plenty of other things to offer.”
