This is a terrific news story from the UK about how UK newsagents have been helping their local communities through covid:

Newsagents have played a crucial role in their local communities during the coronavirus pandemic, from ensuring residents can get their daily news fix to keeping emergency stashes of toilet paper behind the till for customers unable to get their hands on any elsewhere.

Yet unlike many other essential workers who have, rightly, been praised for keeping the country going during the hardest of times, the contribution of newsagents has been largely overlooked.

As fears about the likelihood of a Covid-19 outbreak in the UK spread prior to lockdown, many shoppers who had previously bypassed their local newsagent in favour of the larger supermarket chains started dropping into convenience stores closer to home in order to avoid the crowds in towns any city centres.

…

Some newsagents have gone to great lengths to help customers and their local community during the pandemic.

Asiyah and Jawad Javed, who run the Day-Today Express store in Stenhousemuir, Falkirk, have given away hundreds of free Covid-19 hygiene kits to elderly and vulnerable people in their area to help to keep them safe during the public health crisis.

The kits include antibacterial hand gel, sanitising wipes and facemasks, and have cost the business more than £4,000. The couple also offered free delivery services for any residents unable to get to the shop.

What a great story!

Small business newsagents have helped their local communities in many ways through COVID-19 and here are some of them:

1. Being open. While many retailers closed, newsagents remained open all through Covid as they were classed essential. This presented rostering challenges along with workplace health and safety challenges.
2. Diversifying. With other local shops closed, plenty of Newsagency businesses temporarily filled those product gaps that emerged.
3. Helping others clear stock. With other shops closed, plenty of newsagents took some stock others had and helped them clear it. I know of cases where newsagents took on stock from closed nearby shops, helping friends out.
4. Expanding the range to serve evolving needs. Helping with home office supplies, nesting products, iso home entertainment like jigsaws … newsagents have moved quickly to serve emerging needs, and not often at huge profit, like, maybe, some supermarkets.
5. Making shopping easier. Packaging selected items to make shopping faster and easier for things people might buy together.
6. Offering safe curbside pickup. Newsagents have made shopping easy and safe for shoppers to collect items orders over the phone or online. Staff in-store shop for the items, bag them and have them ready for contactless collection.
7. Offering new home delivery. This has been done in situations where retailers have not offered home delivery. For example, delivery of care packages to nursing homes, delivery of gifts to locals ordered by family members elsewhere.
8. Offering safer shopping. By re-shaping the in-store space and experience and making shopping safer, newsagents lead locally on this early in Covid.
9. Being local. Living local and being engaged local offers a big difference. Being the one local shop people could go to for some, distanced, human interaction.

Covid has been challenging and continues to be challenging for retailers. Newsagents are here every day, trading, serving their communities and often helping beyond what one might expect for a business. It is this commitment to community that runs through the veins of newsagents.

With older Australians as their customers, newsagents have been particularly focussed on safe retail for them.

Covid has a long way to go, as the current situation in Victoria shows. Newsagents are doing their best to offer local safe and helpful service to their local communities.

What has happened in Victoria this week as a result of the spike in COVID-19 cases has been a challenge. I say this as someone living in Victoria and with several businesses based in Victoria.

Whereas since march, we have all been in this together, now some postcodes are in and others are not. The tougher lockdowns in some postcodes have resulted in challenges outside those postcodes.

Major shopping centres have seen a sharp decline in shopper traffic and this is playing out at the register with sales down 50% and more from early in the week. That decline is playing well for high street retailers with most I have spoken with experiencing steady and even slightly up sales.

Jigsaw sales are up again as are other categories such as nesting.

While some in other states have made fun of Victoria, the reality is we are beta testing living with corona for the longer term. By beta testing mean we Victorians are working out how to live with this for the longer term.

The reality is that due to mixed messages from shouty media and plenty of politicians on all sides, it makes sense that people became complacent. What we have seen is that complacency is dangerous, it has consequences.

Social distancing is key. Washing hands matters. Using hand sanitiser is important. Keeping a clean and well organised shop is our responsibility. Health and safety barriers at retail counters are important. Seriousness about health is core. Discipline and commitment to these things is what life in this corona world until there is a vaccine is what matters.

From a business management perspective, we have learned that the corona lockdown months are the new normal and that we need to adapt our businesses. Some of what we have experienced these months is sticking. More businesses are adopting for the long term lockdown changes, such as working from home.

In all of these moves there are opportunities for local retailers.

The infection spike in Victoria has been a timely reminder that March through June were not a blip. No, they are experiences we in business need to leverage for all those who rely on our businesses for income and support.

The mantra from March is relevant today: be frugal, hoard cash, make safe business decisions, ensure that every person in your shop needs to be there.

If you feel disconnected with what has been happening in Victoria, know that you are one person away from experiencing this where you are.

I posted this on the Facebook pages for my Victorian businesses and the newsXpress national Facebook page.

While it is frustrating being the butt of jokes from other states, corona is invisible and will spike in other places too. This week and next we Victorians get to show the rest of the country how to deal with a second wave.

I share it here as other Victorian retailers may wish to post their own messaging early in this period a surge of corona infections. I felt it was better to be on the front foot about this given the wall to wall coverage in the news and given how some media outlets outside the state are speaking about us.

Dan Andrews, the Premier of Victoria just announced a return to stage 3 lockdown for some Victorian postcodes in response to COVID-19 infections.

The return to stage 3 lockdown presents challenges for residents and businesses in these areas. Newsagents, based on past experience, will be exempt. High street newsagents in particular will see foot traffic changes as the shopping malls empty out, which has started already.

Click on the image to see the full statement by the Premier. I have shared it here as I suspect news outlets will not run the full statement.

Related, earlier this week I announced to people working in my own office-based businesses that I anticipate we will continue our work from home approach for most through to the end of this year at least. The feedback I had was that people wanted certainty.

90% of our workforce is working from home with Microsoft Teams, Zoom and our VoiP phone system key to maintaining contact and productivity.