Bowral's main drag was closed in the aftermath of the devastating fire on July 1 and remains fully closed to traffic between Wingecarribee and Merrigang Streets.

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Demolition (Phase Two) began last week as part of the Four-Phase plan for re-opening but with no time frame implemented, affected businesses are facing an uncertain future.

Gumnut Patisserie Operations Manager Michael Glennon said the impact of the fire is bigger than anything they've faced over the last year.

"Has it affected us? Absolutely, it's probably had a bigger effect on our business in Bowral than Covid has," Mr Glennon told the Southern Highland News.

"I'm seeing massive drops and we haven't seen numbers like this in our Bowral shop for 20 years probably, they're that low.

"The area has a lot of aged people in it and they're not walking 200-300 meters to my shop. Everyone is reducing their time out in the community and given they can't park anywhere near our store it does put significant pressure on the business."

Mr Glennon said while he was thankful the business was still able to open, getting the street back to normal was essential.

"Compared to lots of businesses, especially the ones in that building, we are trading," he said.

"The ones in that building are not....we can't be unhappy with the situation.

"I'm not one to sit and wait for guidance. I've done my best to communicate with all levels of council. I've been spending lots of time on the phone with the State MP, speaking to the guys doing the demolition.

"The impact on our business is so significant that I need to know what's going on.

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"Due to safety I completely understand where they're coming from, but the speed with which it's taking to get there is challenging.

"Have they opened the road? Yes, and it's given us a slight increase but until they open the main street completely we are definitely going to be hamstrung.

"To say I've put a lot of pressure on lots of people to get something happening would be the understatement of the world."

It's a similar story for Cindy Croker and her Barbara's Storehouse shop in Bowral.

Ms Croker made the difficult decision to close the weekend after the fire in the interests of staff safety, with lots of debris and smoke still present.

"We just thought in regard to our staff, and the smell was so bad, that we should shut on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday so we lost that trade as well," she said.

With her store, which sells furniture and homewares, located directly in the middle of the road closure, Ms Croker said the situation needed to be rectified.

"Because it is locked out it isn't very approachable so it's very flat," she explained.

"I understand totally that they need to do that but I think we're at a point now where if this was in the city they would do a half road blockage.

"I just think it's too extensive to take out that side and that entire part in front of us is a bit much.

"We're probably down at least 50-60 percent down. We're really feeling the effect of Sydney people not coming down and local people being a bit fearful as well but the whole thing is a bit off putting."

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