“This unprecedented incident is bringing out the best in most people”

We have always offered a free local delivery service and so ramping it up over the last week or so hasn’t been too much of an issue. We initially started it instead of opening a second branch elsewhere, thinking that it was more cost effective. So for customers within our local area there is no delivery charge and no minimum order when ordering through the website. We then have a few local customers who can’t get online or into the shop so we also offer to do other bits of local shopping for them and deliver it along with their cheese. In light of the current situation we are offering this shopping service to all of our local deliveries so we are dropping off all sorts of items whilst we are out and about, for example after work last week I delivered 2 x 10kg bags of water softener salt to a customer!

We haven’t got any extra staff coming in, indeed at the moment we have told our part time members of staff to stay at home on full pay so there is only Ali and myself in the shop. This is mostly to protect our staff but also to limit the number of people that our customers come into contact with.

Footfall has increased and as we are limiting it to just one customer in the shop at any time there is a constant stream of people so it has felt very busy. Our online orders have tripled and we are also taking orders over the phone. The two of us are just keeping on smiling and getting through each day as best we can whilst helping as many people as possible.

At the moment we haven’t noticed any issues with our usual supply. We are trying to order in things that customers are struggling to get so we’ve got flour coming in as well as other things that we don’t usually stock, purely to try and help people buy the bits that they need. These extra bits are sometimes harder to source but we will keep doing our best!

I do think this sort of unprecedented incident is bringing out the best in most people and the worst in a minority. Our shop is in the heart of a thriving village and everyone is looking out for everyone else. We will all come through it in the end.