"Self Imposed" Lockdowns

[OldQueen1969]

I re-opened my non-essentail shop last Wednesday. The news was greeted enthusiastically by former customers - our FB page has over 3000 likes/ followers. We are niche and alternative and now, sadly (or maybe not) the only shop of its kind for miles around. We are located just outside the town's main drag with reasonable parking.

On Wednesday we had a reasonable number of visitors / customers, divided between regulars and passing trade.

As soon as the new rule of 6 was announced, this has dropped to virtually nothing. Saturday was embarrassingly tumbleweed despite multiple social media posts and the fact that we had a guest seller in store related to our brand.

At the end of Saturday I put a post out on my personal FB page to garner information about how other areas of town were faring. Retail was reported as quiet, pubs and restaurants were faring better as people I suppose were making the most of the weather and the incoming 6 rule.

In addition, quite a few people said they were essentially reverting to a personal lockdown, ie going out for essentials - work, school, education and food shopping but not much else.

So despite the doom-mongering that people will be resisting the rules and the calls for normality to return (with rules observed only), is it actually the case that this will become the norm for many now? Which won't help the economy much?

Have to add we have had about 15 recent cases confirmed in the immediate area, mostly via the hospitality sector and a few schools, but it hasn't spread like wildfire as such - I suspect this has also influenced people.

Was interested to hear people's thoughts on this, especially those in independent businesses.

I suspect a lot of the issue is that you remained closed for far too long after everywhere else had reopened. The majority of your former customers will have now started to obtain your product elsewhere as they weren't willing to wait another 3 months after the vast majority of shops reopened to obtain it and now they have found alternative suppliers it is likely many will never return.
It makes no sense to compare your first day of reopening to any other day as those customers who were waiting for you to reopen will typically have visited on the first day making it unrealistic that the levels of custom experienced on that day would continue going forward whatever the circumstances.

Non-essential retail always tends to be somewhat quiet in early September in any case as a lot of people have just splashed out for school uniforms and will have just begun saving up towards Xmas meaning they are not in a position to buy large volumes of non-essential items.

A lot of people have been avoiding non essential indoor places. Clearly you have thought this too as you have only just opened. It was an odd choice to wait until the inevitable autumn rise of covid to reopen.

I'm only doing essential trips as we live in a high risk area and I want to keep my kids in school.
We are not going to restaurants or pubs due to t&t and only doing essenital shopping but there have been 1100 cases in a week in my city.

You also have to consider lots of people have had a reduced income, have been made or are at risk of being made redundant, are worried about price rises of necessities due to the recession and Brexit so people are not wanting to spend on non essentials.

We have been avoiding non essential places to keep the risk as low as possible, cases are rising and new restrictions are being bought in.

We’ve shopped online so are supporting the economy that way and used local businesses that changed to delivery. No plans to change back either in the main as it’s quicker and easier and I don’t need the car so better for the environment.

Lack of trust in government leads to people making their own rules

This is why the just go back to normal crowd are deluded

As others have said, retails is always quiet this time of year. People are either still on holiday or getting ready for schools to go back and spending money on those things.

Do you sell online at all?

I only know a couple of people who are still keeping to self-imposed lockdown and those (me included) have continued throughout and wouldn't have gone to non-essential shops this week at all. Everyone else seems to be meeting friends and pretty much living "normally" otherwise.

I went into town yesterday for the first time since 23rd July. DS needed something and it was easier to go into town and get it from a nice, small independent shop where I only had to wear a visor* for 5 minutes rather than having to go round a supermarket or larger out of town store.

The outdoor seating in cafés looked busy. Street relatively quiet. Not many people clutching shopping bags.
Maybe it was the 25oC sunshine on a Sunday.
Maybe people are avoiding masks or uneccessary indoor spaces.

*I'm mask exempt and CBA with risking encountering any vocal sanctimonius twats who may take issue with it.

Why were you so late re-opening? I feel generally more supportive of businesses that that kept going throughout in the best way they could.

Thank you for the responses - shall take all comments on board.

I was late re-opening as my Mum passed at the end of April and I had to deal with her admin - we also had to re-model the shop and reduce display space and find proper storage for extraneous items in order to make it Covid unfriendly for those who rightly feel this is all my own fault.

However am trying to play catch up and trying to get a good feel for how to move forward.

@midgebabe

Lack of trust in government leads to people making their own rules

This is why the just go back to normal crowd are deluded

THIS.

And I would add that the more anti-mask, anti-vaxxer, "lets go the "herd immunity route." "Covid's not real", "children can't catch it or spread it" "it's a mild illness" "fuck the coronavirus rules" stupidity I hear and read the more and more we stay away from people.

If we can't get it delivered we'll do without.