Shopping from the sofa in these slightly strange times...
So these are interesting times. That’s one of my greater understatements. Feeling of impending doom. Trying to persuade parents to stay inside. Essentially feeling completely out of control, but still trying to plan (whilst not really being sure what for…). It’s all a bit strange and extremely stressful. And that’s before we even get onto whether we have a secure income which many islanders don’t - relying on self-employment or the hospitality industry to pay their bills.
And I’ve been sitting in the office, pondering what to do. Not about the isolation and whatnot, we’re all in the same unsure situation about that… having not done my weekly food shop this weekend (I didn’t want to add to the hoards), I’ve now got to go and do it today. Cannot wait to work out what to create from the niche ingredients I suspect will be left. It’ll be like a rubbish episode of Ready Steady Cook (but without the store cupboard essentials). But I have a small business, and I need to address the fact that you might find this blog post via a sponsored post. Because I still have bills to pay and a business to run. Whether you shop with me, or someone else, can I please implore you to support your local businesses where you can during this time? Even if our behaviour has to change, and we have to socialise less, PLEASE don’t forget to buy small and local, otherwise when we get to the end of this there won’t be any small businesses left. Whether it’s wine, food, flowers, gifts, clothes, photographs, coffee, tea… when you can, get it from Jersey.
While I’m bigging up small businesses and the self-employed though, let’s just get something straight… Buying up all the hand sanitiser and loo roll and selling it off at an inflated price does not make you an entrepreneur. It makes you a t**t. I know it’s been said a lot and I’m not being very original by reiterating it (there’s only so much room in my brain left for originality at the moment, and I need to keep that for cooking for a family of four with mostly lentils and bulgar wheat), but last month everyone was telling us to be kind, and this month it seems that we are thinking mostly of ourselves. I get that. We are fundamentally animals, and we have evolved to look after ourselve and our own in order to survive. But loo roll isn’t some magic anti covid-19 repellent, so, you know, buy what you need? Ditto sanitary towels, which were gone from the shelves this morning. I mean, really?
I’m lucky enough to have a pretty low risk business: there isn’t a huge high street rent to pay, I don’t commit to vast swathes of stock as we shop small and then restock or discontinue. But I’ve been reticent about shouting about what I can do from our Facebook page or Instagram. Not because I don’t think I’ve got an excellent business model, gorgeous gifts, and the ability to get these to people island wide even in these - frankly very odd - times, but because I didn’t want to be seen as adding to the mele of drama… of profiteering off the back of a pandemic… This weekend however, I got to thinking. I should shout out about what Harriet and Rose does from the Jersey rooftops. We do it all year round! This isn’t a reaction! We can help you send gifts to a loved one all the time! But now you might actually need us to more than ever. We are not trying to make profit from what is frankly a pretty rubbish state of affairs, but we are trying to keep our small business going.
So what do I do? What we all do is be sensible. From a business point of view, I’ve looked at the services we offer. I’ve realised that in town collection suddenly got a lot less relevent (hello working from home if you can right?). I’ve realised that now more than ever, people will want to have things dropped on their doorstep. I’ll be candid, I don’t want to queue in the post office right now, I want to hand deliver to minimise my, your, and your deliveries recipient’s risk. So that’s what I’m going to do.
Collection in town is cancelled for now. Island wide delivery is reduced to a flat rate of £2 (please do detail some directions should your house be hard to find), and if you don’t want to go out shopping, then don’t. Sit in the sun (I know, great time for that to show up right?), and shop on your phone or your computer. We’ve always been here to deliver, and that’s not changed. But we’re not going to change anything that we were already doing to take advantage of these strange times.
Oh, and we always sold soap… (no really, we actually did).
Whilst I’m on a passionate small business rant, I’m lucky enough to share an office with, and know a network of amazing small business owners. So here’s some brilliant local businesses that you can support right now. By all means big up another local small business in the comments below. We’re all in this together…
Ink Blot Creative - my room mate in a shared office, and communications expert, she’s knows all there is to know about Crisis Communications. If you work for a small, medium or large business and need help navigating the comms at this time, get in touch with Jacqui
Imogen Apparel - another office mate, but she’s got the one with the nice flooring upstairs. Imogen has taken her business full time this year, and has a gorgeous range of clothing and lingerie (the latter of which she makes here in Jersey), ready to send… and it’s all in island already! So if you need some retail therapy, but can’t/won’t leave the house, check out her website.
Lisa Le Brocq - yes you can find some of jewellery on our website, but she’s got some amazing new designs that were ready for the Simply Spring Fair (now cancelled), ready to send out to you.
The Organic Shop - deliver fresh organic veg and fruit to your doorstep weekly. Find them through Facebook.
Rhona’s - at Gorey. I’m not saying stress drives me to drink, but had a small grown-up headache on Saturday (aka a hangover), and as ever, the bacon, sausage and egg on Portuguese roll saved me. All payments contactless, and the whole of Long Beach to isolate with comfort food. Hand sanitiser available there too.