Many of our high street businesses in SE19 have been closed to the public for over 12-weeks.
Monday 15th June 2020 sees a further change of lockdown rules and we will see more retail businesses able to open their doors to the public once more.
This will be a such relief for many business owners and local residents, but re-opening is something we need to approach with real care and caution as a community. Behind-the-scenes during lockdown, our traders have been busy reading-up on new and evolving regulations. Working together, we've built a talking forum* for traders where these issues can be discussed openly, as we all find a way to operate safely across our different locations and premises to keep staff and customers safe.
Businesses that have stayed open during the period have been so generous in sharing their practical knowhow to help retail businesses prepare for re-opening. Many thanks to local guerilla marketing firm MediaGang for supplying helpful biodegradable stencils to help shoppers queue with social distance.
Here are our key principles for re-opening and new ways of doing business. We all need to do our bit to keep our community safe and help it thrive. Every pound spent locally makes a massive difference to our local community and economy. These businesses and services need your support more than ever.
We get the local community and high streets that we make for ourselves.
We build our community with our own actions and by showing support.
It's on all of us to make this work for Crystal Palace.
Some businesses will need to wait a little longer until conditions improve sufficiently to allow opening for closer-contact services such as salons / therapists and the indoor seated areas of our wonderful pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants.
Many have come up with fantastic and innovative ideas to stay in touch with customers during lockdown and in some cases to keep trading safely, with home delivery, new product ranges, streaming services, pay-it-forward vouchers and click & collect and more bright ideas to keep their businesses active.
The free My Local lockdown directory https://covid19-mylocal.uk/ is still available to help businesses whether they are fully open or want to list new and alternative services for customers.
Wishing everyone all the best for the weeks to come.
If you are a high street trader in Crystal Palace and you not yet part of our ShopSE19 group, please get in touch. Shop SE19 is here to provide mutual support and welcomes all permanent shop-fronted and hospitality businesses based in SE19 to join. It's even more important that we work together and support each other now.
Register your business for ShopSE19 updates