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It is just before lunchtime and Sydney sandwich shop manager Ben Wu is fixated on elevators as he looks at the lone customer dining in his ground-floor store.

There is one walk-in entrance to Quick & Fresh on York Street but Mr Wu is thinking about all those lifts in nearby office towers that will not be going up and down.  

Several doors along at Muglan Express it is all the local colleges going online due to  COVID-19 that has stopped students coming in to buy Nepalese dumplings.

The nearby Mitre 10 hardware store has a different problem - no one is staying in city hotels, Airbnb rentals or backpacker hostels and breaking bathroom doors. 

Daily Mail Australia walked a block of York Street on Wednesday shortly after it was confirmed the country had plunged into recession for the first time in almost 30 years. 

Ben Wu in Sydney's York Street has run the Quick & Fresh sandwich shop with his wife for 11 years. In recent month's the 57-year-old has experienced a 50 per cent drop in customers due to COVID-19

Muglan Express manager Shirish Thakali (pictured) said local schools running online-only courses had stripped 70 per cent of his customers, as it was announced Australia was in recession for the first time in almost 30 years

Ching Ching (pictured) is the city area manager for York Street's Mitre 10 which has seen a 40 per cent business downturn. 'Nobody really comes into the CBD,' she said. 'Are we surviving? We plod along'

The seven per cent economic slump recorded for the June quarter was worse than the Great Depression, and the 6.3 per cent annual drop had not been seen since 1945.

The causes and effects of these figures were obvious on York Street where businesses are shuttered and those that remain open report up to a 70 per cent downturn in turnover.

The historic Forbes Hotel on the corner of King Street has been closed for several years and its gutted insides stand idle. 

Next door the Spooning Goats small bar is also closed and the Nutrition Warehouse above it has recently been relocated.

The neighbouring Golf Mart is closed and empty and a sign advises customers to visit the chain's Artarmon or Revesby shops.

Destination Roll two doors down has moved and the space is still not leased. In the adjacent building Alert Printing is closed and empty, and businesses listed on four floors above it did not answer calls.  

Until the COVID-19 pandemic hit Muglan Express shared a mini food court with Sushi OK and Thai Food Republic, both of which closed down in March. Both venues are pictured 

There were three customers in Muglan Express at 12.15pm and just two staff when six months ago there would have been five. The eatery (pictured) closed for eight weeks from March and has now cut back its trading hours 

Halfway down the block Quick & Fresh was almost empty but at least remained open. 

Mr Wu has run Quick & Fresh with his wife for 11 years and shut for only two weeks at the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns in March. 

Since reopening the 57-year-old has experienced a 50 per cent drop in customers coming in to buy lunches like a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich for $6.

'Some people I haven't seen since late March,' he said.  

'In the city we rely on the offices and high volume. My prices are very cheap. We just do volume. If no volume, we're just dead.'

Mr Wu has no problem controlling social distancing in his sandwich bar but the empty lifts in surrounding office towers have hit him hard.

Staff still coming into those buildings don't want to use the lifts and the rest are working from home.    

'Assume there's a high-rise and there's maybe thousands of people in there and only three people can get in a lift,' Mr Wu said. 'It stops people coming. 

The once bustling Forbes Hotel (pictured) which opened on the corner of York and King Streets in 1836 has been closed for several years

The Forbes Hotel's windows have been covered up and its gutted insides stand idle (pictured). Treasurer Josh Frydenberg described the latest economic figures as 'heart breaking' human stories. 

'If the government encourages companies back to the office I don't think we'd be the same as before but we'd survive.

'It might be different at Circular Quay but tourists are very limited for York Street. If there's no people moving around, there's no business activity.' 

Mr Wu said he tried to remain positive but believed businesses in the city were generally doing it tougher than those further out of town.  

'The CBD is being hit more than the suburbs,' he said. 'People working from home they may go to local shops. We rely on offices.

'If it keeps going like this it's impossible to survive.'

There were three customers in Muglan Express at 12.15pm and just two staff when six months ago there would have been five. 

The eatery closed for eight weeks from March and has now cut back its trading hours from 8am-6.30pm to 11am-4.30pm.

Manager Shirish Thakali said local schools including the Holmes Institute, King's Own Institute and Victoria University running online-only courses had stripped 70 per cent of his customers.

Destination Roll (pictured) moved from York Street to nearby King Street in July and the shop remains empty

The Thai Food Republic eatery (pictured) on York Street closed at the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns in March and has not re-opened

'There was no problem besides this, the COVID,' Mr Thakali said. 'We were really picking up before corona. 

'Everyone was doing well before the pandemic then everything turned upside down.' 

Until the COVID-19 pandemic hit Muglan Express shared a mini food court with Sushi OK and Thai Food Republic, both of which closed down in March. 

'Before the pandemic at this time it used to be full,' Mr Thakali said. 'You couldn't even step inside.'

'If they opened the colleges it would be the best for us,' the 28-year-old said. 

Until then, Mr Thakali, who has managed the eatery for two years, would try to remain open for his regular diners.

'We are doing it for the customers,' he said. 'I don't want to disappoint them. I don't want to give up easily. We've got to keep going.'

Golf Mart in York Street is permanently closed and empty and a sign advises customers to visit the chain's Artarmon or Revesby shops

While Golf Mart in York Street (pictured) has shut up shop an F45 gym below remains open and was running classes on Wednesday afternoon

Sulav Pokharel was a barista at Muglan Express before the pandemic struck and he lost his job. He then found work managing a new bar for the same parent company. 

Galli Galli opened in Central Street in May when it could have only 10 patrons inside. 

'It's quite frustrating,' Mr Pokharel said. 'It's very tough. Sometimes we have nights where we have no customers at all.'

Until Wednesday Australia held a 29-year world record for avoiding a recession but COVID-19 social distancing policies and border closures have ended that now.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg described the latest economic figures as 'heart breaking' human stories. 'The effect of COVID-19 is a recession,' he said.

'Behind these stories and these numbers are heartbreaking stories of hardship being felt by everyday Australians as they go about their daily lives.

'Be it the tourism operator in Cairns, the tradie in Melbourne, the cafe worker in Adelaide or the domestic flight attendant in Sydney.

'These numbers are sobering and devastating. Today's devastating numbers confirm what every Australian knows.'

Sulav Pokharel (pictured) was a barista at Muglan Express before the pandemic struck and he lost his job

Next door to the Forbes Hotel is the Spooning Goats small bar, which is also closed and the Nutrition Warehouse above it has recently been relocated

Ching Ching is the city area manager for York Street's Mitre 10 which has seen a 40 per cent business downturn.

'At the moment we rely on construction business,' she said. 'Construction people are still going.' 

The store had remained opened during Sydney's early partial lockdown because it was considered an essential service but was closing an hour earlier. 

'We are quiet,' Ms Ching said. 'People work from home.  Nobody really comes into the CBD. Are we surviving? We plod along. 

'The biggest issue is with all of the hotels. Hotels don't have customers. They haven't broken the bathroom door for six months.

'They don't need to fix anything. They don't have to clean anything. They're not going to buy anything.'

'Some people I haven't seen since late March,' said Ben Wu, manager of Quick & Fresh (pictured) in York Street. 'My prices are very cheap. We just do volume. If no volume, we're just dead'

Mitre 10 has another city store in Pitt Street and outlets at Bondi Junction, Newtown, Paddington and Mosman. 

Ms Ching said with so many Sydneysiders working from home and embarking on maintenance projects, those four suburban stores were 'booming'

'They are busy,' Ms Ching said. 'It's completely the polar opposite. If we do not have those four stores I already close [the city stores].' 

Ms Ching had been able to keep all her full-time staff by asking them to take annual leave and making other rostering manoeuvres.

'We want to keep everybody,' she said. 'I want to come out of the other end together. 

'Where is the other end? I try to be optimistic but I'm not sure, to be honest.'