COVID began as a small, unknown virus which many disregarded but across three years, it has caused a global pandemic, 3 lockdowns in the UK alone, 5.25M deaths worldwide and sent the world into chaos. Now if this is the effects it has on the world, consider the impact it would have on small businesses and shops who would have suffered immensely from the consequences of COVID. An example is Prayosha Food and Wine who have been interviewed today regarding how they endured COVID and future plans.
Prayosha Food and Wine is a small convenience store who were running smoothly, effectively and successfully before COVID. The business would attract many customers (mainly in the nearby neighbourhood) and was comfortable in making profits. But with the sudden arrival of COVID, which brought the pandemic and lockdown, the business had to close temporarily (along with many others) which would slow and delay revenue and sales. As such, for many months Mr P (the owner of the shop) was not making money and products within the business would have gone to waste. This was an obvious setback and it caused many complications (such as with what money could be used to buy more products, would customers return or go to bigger shop businesses etc.).
But Mr P looked ahead and was palpable in a plan for the long term to restabilise and rebuild the business to revert to conditions pre-COVID and once again have a safe economic flow of cash income. When asked, Mr P said “I aim for this [in reference to above] by not keeping the shop open for long periods of time and build up cash to reinvest into stock and product for the shop. A loan or sales made from products still eligible to be sold will be the basis for future developments, to eventually buy new products that can go up for sale and make profit. It will be a long process but it’s the most effective when looking at how I can sustain my business”. When asked about customer loyalty and whether he could keep his customers despite gradual increase in shop hours, Mr P responded “I expect my customers to return regardless of how long it takes. I have trust in them and they know me personally”.
COVID has slowed businesses and even shut some down but it is interesting how the impact on smaller businesses has been tackled despite heavy inflictions. Prayosha Food and Wine is just one example of how Shopkeepers have made plans to recover and tackle the consequences of COVID and the pandemic. COVID will leave a mark for years and potentially centuries to come for all and plans in order to reduce that will be highly important. The battle between shopkeepers and the unfortunate pandemic which has slowed business will be an outlined highlight and topic for the coming years.
