Some are doing home deliveries for the first time and tell of a heightened sense of caring in the community; others tell of a rise in shoplifting, staff being spat at and a devastating collapse in grocery sales.
As a third independent retailer dies from Covid-19, owners of corner shops across the UK tell the Guardian about just how hard it is to cope in the pandemic.
All of them are considered key workers, but they don’t have the support of retail giant owners who can offer personal protective equipment (PPE), screens, security staff or financial support when sales plummet.
Yet they have one thing in common: a determination to stay open and keep serving their communities.
Ashley’s News, Gants Hill, Ilford
Mohammed Faz, of Ashley’s News on Beehive Lane, has been a beacon of light for the community he serves. He is stocking yeast for the first time ever – “everyone is baking now” – though his initial offer of sanitiser and masks wasn’t successful.
His store is quiet but he detected a change in custom overnight. “This community is older, people are not going up to the big shops, they can come in here, it’s safe and they know there are only one or two people in the shop at a time. So people are spending £100, £200,” he says.
“They are buying everything here, toiletries, food, alcohol. They don’t want to go to the supermarkets because they don’t think they are safe.”
Welcome Stores, Southampton
Richard Inglis runs three shops in Southampton but has already closed one after sales plummeted from £30,000 a week to £5,000 in just five days. His staff have been abused, and he has been spat at by shoplifters. Inglis says small shops can’t afford the security personnel hired by the big supermarket chains.
Over the past few weeks, a small group of drug users and street drinkers have started to hang round the front of his shop in front of the railway station daily. And they have become more sophisticated in their approach, he says.
“Before, they used to come on their own, now they are coming in in teams wearing face masks, disguising their identity, and they will split up around the shop, grab whatever they can and make a dash for it. It’s worrying for my staff who have got anxieties about the virus and then these people in swearing and threatening to spit at you,” he said.
“I got spat at in the face along with two of my staff by a woman the other week. She’s still on the streets. The police came and she was arrested but she was released on bail,” he explained. “The reality is if you shoplift, the biggest risk is you might be detained for 24 hours.”
Shopsmart, Possilpark, Glasgow
Omar Afzal runs the Shopsmart convenience store and post office on Saracen Street, north Glasgow and explains how people locally have adapted to the crisis.
He and his staff now wear PPE, and customers take their own precautions, such as handing over their bank card in a sealed plastic bag so they can disinfect it when they get home.
“It’s a very benefit-dependent area so people have not had a big shock to their income like other places. We didn’t get panic-buying here, I think that was more of a middle-class thing,” Afzal says.
Like other similar shops, he adds: “We’ve seen a huge reduction in customer numbers but they tend to buy much more to keep them going.”
He has now reduced the number of customers in the shop to three at a time, where they can browse three aisles selling everything from muesli to wrapping paper. People are buying more magazines and puzzle books now, as well as more vouchers for online gaming since the bookies closed.
The mood of shoppers is usually good-humoured, he adds. “In an area like this it’s tough for people cooped up in flats and that can have an effect on mental health, so when people come out to the shop it’s a change of scenery, especially for children.
“There’s a perception that we’re staying open for the money, but we’re key workers and we have a sense of responsibility. We are financially invested in the area but also emotionally. I’ve been here for 20 years and have seen people grow up.”
Marsh Hill News, Homerton, east London
Ankit Patel has recently taken over this small convenience store close to the Kingsmead Estate in London. At the outset of the lockdown he had considered closing, but felt it was important to stay open so locals could continue to top up their Oyster travel cards and use the Payzone to pay their bills.
Sales have collapsed in the past few weeks, however, and he struggles to make ends meet. “We used to do 200-250 transactions a day. We’ve been open since 7am and it’s now 12.30am and we’ve had 21 transactions,” he told the Guardian last week, checking the till.
Patel blames panicked stockpiling last month. “People were panicking and they still have these things in their house, so they are only coming in here for milk and food,” he said.
He is also witnessing hardship, with some customers offering to sell their phones and stolen goods. “We have people coming in to sell goods they have stolen from other shops, from supermarkets, not just groceries but things like jackets, bags,” he said.
“Yesterday we had six or seven people in trying to sell their phones because they have run out of money. These are our regular customers. People are struggling, especially people who had temporary zero-hours jobs, or some people who… are also carers for elderly or sick people and they have no job, they are desperate.”
Patel added that he was giving hard-up cases “a bit of credit” because he feels for them and he is part of the community.
General Merchants, Bettyhill, Scotland
Bettyhill’s General Merchants is the only shop left open in the remote village of about 800 inhabitants on Scotland’s far north coast.
Perched above the spectacular dunes of Torrisdale Bay, the road outside is eerily quiet. The shop is on the A836, on the most northerly section of the popular North Coast 500 touring route, but for now traffic is occasional and local.
The owner of the convenience store and petrol station, Peter Malone, says he is still struggling to stock paracetamol after initial panic-buying. While locals still rely on the shop rather than making the 80-mile (130km) round trip to the nearest supermarket in Thurso, trade is down without the tourists. He is selling fewer sweets with no children dropping in after school, and local crofters are busy with lambing. But sales of butcher meat, bakery and milk are holding up.
He has seen a significant increase in demand for home delivery. Last Friday he made 16, compared with the usual three or four before the weekend. “We knock the door and leave the shopping outside. Older people might want some help carrying it, so we take it into their kitchen and clean behind us on the way out.”
Malone is used to the shop acting as a community hub, but this is made all the more apparent now in a village with a significant proportion of older residents. “It was always the case that we were the centre point, and people will tell us things that we then pass on. The mood in Bettyhill is fairly positive, most people are quite happy that we need to be in lockdown to protect the older population.”
OTG Afro Foods, Romford
Lola Otuagomah is gazing out of the large window in a blue mask watching the near-empty buses go by. His is a destination shop for African food lovers and most, he says, are now too afraid to take the bus to get to him.
“The buses are passing by with just two or three people in them. You can see the place is empty,” he says, gesturing around his mid-sized shop. “By this time usually [3pm] I have 60 to 100 customers, today I’ve had eight to 10.”
He points to the shelves of plastic containers of freshly cooked food including Waakye, fresh moin-moin, jollof rice and pepper soup. “Usually these are already gone by now. I have only sold one today.”
He is also afraid he will run out of stock as the lockdowns have meant supplies are not coming in of specialist milled grains, beans and nuts. “If the borders don’t open again it will be very, very difficult,” he said.
