Locals living in isolated villages in the Cornish countryside are being well served by their local independent retailer during the lockdown thanks to a raft of initiatives introduced in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Gary Batten who runs two stores in the St Austell area of Cornwall, is now seeing almost a quarter of his business coming through home deliveries after launching same day deliveries in March.
And shoppers reluctant to visit large supermarkets have welcomed the steps taken at St Stephen and Nanpean, leading to an increase in sales of almost 40% across the two stores since the onset of Covid-19.
The new home delivery service along with a website and increased publicity across social media platforms have contributed to an increase in overall turnover of 56% over the last year.
Gary said: “We have been unbelievably busy and worked 12-hour days every day for 10 weeks or more now. A lot of people just don’t want to go into the big supermarkets and instead are choosing us.”
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