Will you change what companies you support based on how they are currently reacting?

[Hugt]

I was wondering if how companies have reacted will encourage you to use or not use their services in the future.

Have you seen anything that would make you deliberately chose to support a business in the future?

Locally a cafe has reacted in a way i didnt expect and i now wonder if i will support them in the future? The same with some highly thought of zoos that have been stayed open and shot down anyone that questioned them.

The cafe me has posted varying rants about how annoyed they are that the vulnerable don't self isolate so they could carry on as normal, started selling home made sanitizer thats coronavirus proof but has no alcohol in it, and has set up picnic tables and is actively encouraged people to use picnic benches outside the cafe rather than taking away (including a self isolating table!)

Yes, I will never use Virgin again after Branson asked staff to take unpaid leave. He could easily have offered to pay them.

I've stayed at the coylumbridge hotel and planned to return but making their staff homeless effective immediately was shocking don't think I'd go back now

I hope I never have the misfortune of coming across you again

Well aren't you a peach.
I won't lower myself to your standards. I'll merely wish you well.

Many contain vets and provide food for pets that you cant get anywhere else such as live crickets and frozen mice as well as pet medicines. They absolutely have an important role at the moment

What possible need can there be for someone to have a pet which needs live crickets and frozen mice? Definitely not essential, and the bits that are can be done by mail order/online delivery.

Next also said they were essential.

Yeah right. Their clothes have been utter rubbish for about the last decade.

I'm wondering what Waterstones have done wrong told their staff they couldn't wear masks or gloves

Our local farm shop have been brilliant, have been a big supporter of them anyway as their food is excellent and it’s a great place to meet friends for cak, but they’ve been allowing people to order over the phone and dropping it to their car boot so no contact. I really hope they survive this.
Also a local distillery that is never heard of has ceased normal production and are making hand sanitiser that they’re distributing for free. Will definately be a loyal customer to them now, they’ve been exemplary.
I’m also thoroughly impressed by TK maxx donating their entire food and drink stock.

Eurocamp have been amazing. We booked this year’s summer holiday with them because at the campsite we were at last year their reps were friendly and helped us out even though we hadn’t booked with them. Really supportive unlike our own rep! We've has prompt, lovely and personal service from them over the last couple of weeks. Will definitely be booking with this again.

Britainnia Hotels and Wetherspoons. Why ‘spoons were hell bent on killing off one of their key demographic customers (elderly men), I’ll never know. You can bet Tim is safely holed up in his mansion.

I'm not sure Debenhams are in the same league as Next.

Debs supplied all their staff with gloves, sanitiser and wipes weeks ago. And they are paying the staffs wages until the 80% kicks in is what I heard.

Next appear to have just been arseholes.

Yes I will have a long memory for this.

Fenwick shut on Thursday and donated all the food from their food hall and cafes to food banks and charities.

I understand that you think Wilkos is profits before anything else. But they do sell food and medicine. And in my local they have been very vigilant in encouraging social distancing and protecting staff.
I understand why we want everywhere to shut but its not practical. Better to have a couple of staff, lots of shops and spread people out, than all cramming into supermarkets surely? And continued money means they can continue to pay staff. There's not endless money.

Yes yes and yes!

Definitely keeping an eye one how many are being kind to their customers and employees.

@Iwalkinmyclothing I’m rather baffled by landlords who want to evict tenants right now. Do they honestly think they’ll be able to easily replace them without losing any income anyway? No one in their right mind is going to voluntarily be moving house at the moment, are they

I work at TGIs and they are paying all their staff full wages during the shutdown and Saturday when we had the last clean up for close down they got in contact with some NHS staff (one managers mum is a nurse) and gave them all the fresh fruit and vegetables that were in the walk in fridge rather than throw perfectly good food away

I work for Wilko and the only food they sell is crisps and crap, tea bags and pot noddles. No bread, milk or eggs so unless you want to survive this on a diet of pick and mix and a bag of quavers then they add very
Little to the food supply.
Yes Wilko sell medicine but they don’t dispense and don’t sell anything you can’t get in a supermarket.

Yes they are doing a lot of cleaning but only for the staff there is a bottle of hand gel by the clock in and that’s it.

I work out of hours so my risk is more limited and of couse I don’t have to deal with the abuse that the day staff are dealing with at present but still I think they should shut and unless they close themselves or are forced to then I am going to refuse to work any longer even if it means they sack me.

Worth bearing in mind a lot of 'non-essential' small businesses are waiting for the Government to actually release the HMRC portal so we can apply to furlough workers and keep paying 80% or full wage them rather than sacking them. We don't have the cash reserves that big chains do to commit to paying several sets of wages for an unspecified amount of time without knowing the Government has our back. I'm really hoping they do this today as the thought of laying people off is awful, but so is putting lives at risk. Trust me, turning a profit isn't in our thoughts at the moment.

Thank you for the answer about Wilko. I think they are an essential shop. I buy all my medications from them as well as cleaning material. Recently they were the only ones who seemed not to be stripped of goods.

I will support Pets At Home after this is all over they donate a huge amount of money and food to small animal charities and if it wasn't for them my four rescue cats wouldn't have any food right now as they are the only ones with stocks of food when I went in aldi the other day they had two x 12 pouches boxes of cat food left on the shelves that's three days supply , went in PAH and managed to buy two large boxes of Whiskas pouches yes PAH are not as cheap as aldi but my cats cant go to the supermarket for themselves

We are still getting our deliveries but they are getting smaller as the days pass. In my store there is a lot of gaps on shelves wilkos only has two distribution centres that cover all the stores so they don’t hold a lot of stock in their warehouses.

Plus wilkos tend to be in town centres rather than outside retail parks and by remaining open they encourage people into town.

Out of curiosity, why Zara? Here in Spain they have donated masks and are going to produce hospital coats, etc.
The owner has offered their help with logistics using their channels and connections with China, etc.

I know someone whose DP has been laid off without pay by John Lewis, a whole team of them were told a few hours before Rishi Sunak's announcement the other day.

Secret Escapes. Sending me emails to remind me that bookings are non-refundable when I hadn't even asked

This surprises me. I have member accounts with a fair few of the types of hotel they are partnered with and every one of them wrote to me weeks ago to say all bookings were refundable.

TBF the deals are good and I was prepared to take the risk when I booked. I haven't cancelled and so far neither have they, although I realise I won't be going.

I'm thinking that once the hotels are forced to close they'll probably refund but Secret Escapes have made it clear they won't be.

I was happy just to wait and see what happens.

"Live crickets and frozen mice can be got via mail order for exotic pets" - you clearly don't have reptiles. I've had to give up on PAH for live food, their supplier is SO bad that there's no consistency between packets (And sometimes 80% of their "Live" food has died on the shelf!)
Luckily there's an independent pet store nearby which has been amazing.