Delivery demand hits new highs in Tickhill

We have been absolutely inundated with orders for our delivery service and have just made our 1,000th delivery since lockdown began. It was already well established before the current situation but numbers wanting the service over the past few weeks have rocketed with emails and phone calls coming in round the clock. At the start of this current situation, we were trying to pick orders, we had our own deliveries coming in and we had shoppers in the shop – it was becoming impossible to do all the jobs and keep everyone safe and socially distanced.

Chris said many locals who only usually appear in store at Christmas time are now regulars, buying essentials in their local shop close to home, rather than travelling outside to larger supermarkets.
And basket sizes have almost doubled with those coming into store spending an average of around £50 compared to just half that before Covid-19 hit.

Extra store colleagues have been recruited to assist picking orders with university students back home with parents taking on the casual roles and providing a quick and flexible solution.

And other tactics have been used to find solutions such as making use of bakery suppliers for products like flour and eggs, when availability through usual channels was an issue.

“Like all independent retailers, we have found different ways of doing the same thing to make sure we have what our customers need. It’s hard work and very long hours but customers are happy, and staff are safe, and the new way of working is still profitable,” said Chris.