Businesses in the Lithgow region have been suffering ever since greater Sydney went into lockdown earlier this year.
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One of those businesses includes Hartley's own Lolly Bug.
With 90 per cent of their clientele dropping off, the store had over $170,000 worth of wholesale stock sitting untouched, ready for the school holiday period.
"We've probably only sold $15,000 worth of that stock since lockdown, so our biggest concern is stock going out of date," owner Sharon Tofler said.
"If this goes on another couple of months it will be really hard for us, we are looking at trying to donate some of the stock because I hate it going out of date because then I would have to throw it all in the skip bin."
Ms Tofler said it was possible to sell items past their used by date for half price, but it wasn't ideal.
The Lolly Shop dropped their hours last month because restrictions were taking a toll and staff found themselves standing around waiting for someone to drop in.
"It seemed that no-one local wanted to come out to Hartley, people were just a lot more nervous this time around, or they were downright depressed," she said.
This led Ms Tofler to push for online selling, which she said had been doing "okay" but according to her it doesn't go far.
"By the time it's put together and posted and what not, there's no money in it, but at least it gets rid of some stock," she said.
Ms Tofler said her business got the one off payment from the government and they were eligible for the second payment, which went towards paying employees wages.
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"You know as I said, it's not the actual trading which is a problem, it's going to be the loss of stock which is where it really hits us," she said.
"We're lucky here in that we do actually own the building ourselves so that we don't have rent, which a lot of other people would have. I can't imagine what it must be like to be in Sydney paying thousands of dollars in rent."
Since the beginning of restrictions and now lockdown, The Lolly Bug did take a hard stance on following the rules.
"We put signs on the door basically saying that if you aren't going to agree to do what we're asking then don't come in because some people did just wander in without checking in," she said.
The store which could usually expect to be packed on a weekend or during the holiday period is now empty, something the employees haven't failed to notice.
"It's normally the heart of our days when an order comes in now," Ms Tofler said.
"We've been concentrating on getting our website up to scratch, since that is something we don't really have time for during normal times, we're just so busy dealing with the store."
Ms Tofler said she doesn't think anyone expected this lockdown and restrictions would go on for so long and get this bad.
"Every day you are just listening to the numbers and seeing more and more cases," she said.
She said it was fortunate that one of their permanent staff members left a couple of months ago and just when she was about to replace her she thought better of it. "My daughter is also on maternity leave as well, so we would have needed to replace her but I thought it better to wait," she said.
Full time employee Alison Kay, has been working at the Lolly Bug for nearly 10 years, starting as a part time employee at just 13-years-old.
"I just nagged and nagged Sharon to give me a job and she gave in," she said.
"She has been so good to me, as soon as I left school she offered me a full time position and I just never left.
"I absolutely love working here, it's like family, it's really nice and they have been so good to me."
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