With Boris Johnson’s announcement on Sunday (May 10) heralding June 1 as the date, all being well, that ‘non-essential’ retailers will be open their doors once again, the nation’s card retailers are among those to be putting plans in place for their likely approach.
Leading indies, Chris and Tracey Bryant, the husband and wife team who own Expressions (in Swindon), Cats Whiskers (Bishops Cleeve) and Polkadot (in Keynsham), are well on the case, having spent the weekend kitting out their Swindon store in readiness.
“It’s not going to be easy, on a personal, operational or financial front, but we are retailers and want to be back trading as soon as we can. We have so missed it,” said Tracey, who has diverted a lot of her attentions into the business’ online portal (www.catswhiskersuk.com) since the lockdown, having now loaded 500 different card designs as well as a selection of gifts. “We used to do around £100 a month online, but last month this was up to £4,300. Even when we are up and running again I suspect that some customers will continue to buy online. We need to cover all angles.”
Talking of ‘angles’ Chris and Tracey spent a lot of the weekend in the Expressions store installing a screen near the till, affixing social distancing tape and adding some appropriate signage to detail the social distancing rules.
“One down two to go!” exclaimed Chris, having spent much of the day on his hands and knees, as well as brandishing a tape measure and drill.
Chris explains that the ‘refurbishment’ has been something of a collaborative effort. “My good friend Tom McKenzie (of Quay Imports) made the screens, the social distancing tape was supplied by Mike Ball and our good friends at The Card Shop Portishead, with whom we have been working to procure PPE for our team and customers and we downloaded some signage from Morplan.”
Having talked things through with their members of staff, Chris and Tracey are planning for the staged opening, trading on reduced hours initially.
“It has been so lovely to receive the comments from customers on Facebook who are looking to support us when we can re-open safely,” added Tracey.
Top: Chris and Tracey Bryant can’t wait until their three stores can re-open.
