24-25.qxp_Grid 28/05/2020 16:53 Page 2
OVER THE
COUNTER
Lockdown for everyone has been a different experience. Independent retailer David Robertson, co-owner of JP Pozzi in Buckie and Elgin opens his heart and mind as to how this period has impacted on his outlook to business as well as what he is looking forward to in whatever the ‘new normal’ dishes up. What have you learnt in lockdown? Well, depending on how you want to answer that it may be some/all/or none of the following… l How lucky I am to live where I live. l How skilled I am at navigating my way through the entire Netflix stream. l How much I suddenly enjoy cooking/tidying /juggling (check out Mollie King my personal Insta fave). l How we actually really miss the people we work with. l How we actually struggle to be with our partners/family 24/7. l How much physical contact such as a hug matters. l How little we really need in order to be happy in our lives. l How going for a coffee is one of life’s greatest things. l How life may never be quite the same again until we kinda forget this all happened in a few years. For me ‘work’ has never stopped in fact it has increased as I have had to keep our core newsagents business going on my own. As it was not financially viable or socially acceptable for us to be open for a full day we chose a short three hour window from which to trade which thankfully has proved worthwhile doing it on my own. It also seems to have been viewed as the right decision by the wider community. 24
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Thank God For Cards... And Netflix
Above: Netflix’s Tiger King has been a phenomenal hit during lockdown. Below right: Perspex screens add to the customer safety in JP Pozzi. Bottom: David has seen a big upsurge in its newspaper delivery service.
I fully admit it has been a bit challenging for me personally what with a 5.30am start to sort newspapers; then a drive around dropping off deliveries to the paperboys before rushing back to sort the shop before opening it from 10am-1pm. The rest of the day/evening I seem to have spent on various grant and CBIILS loan applications, building a website and communicating with numerous staff. On top of that I have been constantly watching over my mum (and business partner) as she has been incredibly brave and lonely after fully locking down for the entire period. I have also learnt that my wife is even more tolerant of my working schedule than I could ever have hoped for as she has been home most of the day herself and has been very understanding as I bolt into my home office like a rabbit fleeing down into its burrow. So this has been my day, at that pace, since March 23 and I have been very lucky that our paperboys and their families have supported me and let me at least keep that part of the business as close to normal as it can be.
Newspapers still matter and getting them delivered to people has been a lifeline to many. The written word, this mag included, helps to shape opinion and communication and now more than ever we need that. We need to read and discuss a way forward as ‘the plan’ will come from lots of different experiences. A real saving grace during this period has been the customers that have been coming into the shop. Socially distanced behind a screen it has been good to see that we as a retailer still matter and people still want to come in. I hope ‘people still wanting to come in’ will be the case across all retailers when we can open more fully, because we will need every last bit of support as we come out of this.
These last eight weeks of daily interaction have served to remind me how much I enjoy people - their little foibles, their traits, the things that make us all individuals and why stores like ours and other indies matter. I have also learned that with Zoom how you can have a great meeting with people all over the world in the time it would take me to drive to an airport and check in. The PG Buzz Zoom Meet-ups have been very informative which I have enjoyed participating in as well as reading the reports. Looking specifically at the part greeting cards have played in all of this it has been fascinating to see how much they matter to our town. For the first few weeks people assumed that we were only open for newspapers, lottery tickets, sweets and tobacco and as soon as I brought greeting