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Local butchers may have been disappointed not to have been designated an essential service from day one of lockdown, but most have ended up enjoying aspects of being forced to trade in a different way.
Warkworth Butchery owner Rob Lees says after initial uncertainty, he and his team have adapted well to the new normal and adopted new ways of serving customers, not least when home delivery was permitted throughout the district.
“It gave us a means to trade again,” he says. “It’s about looking after people, so we’ve been happy to make the effort to go to them. We were gobsmacked at how far away some of the orders were coming from. I’ve been down to the north shore and up to Te Arai, Wellsford and Port Albert.”
The service has proved so popular that the butchery will continue to deliver for at least one day a week. Its online click and collect service and phone orders will also carry on.
“The feedback has been really good and it’s been a novel change for us as well, a different way of looking at the business,” Rob says. “We’ve been using the time really well, and we’re going to make a few changes in the shop. It’s been way more relaxed; it’s all good.”
The Matakana Village Butchery’s Matt Watts agrees. He is also planning to continue deliveries as well as a click and collect online service.
“It’s been good, it was a good challenge tackling the new ways of working, and we’ve still got all our local customer base,” he says. “It was good to do work at our own pace, but quite a learning curve for us. Deliveries are not as easy as you think, you have to plan your route wisely and be careful with stock. But the change has been good.”
Rob says the only real issues were at the start of lockdown when it was thought that butchers would continue to trade.
“The worst thing about it was we were led to believe we could remain open, so we were quite stocked up and had informed a lot of people we would be carrying on with delivery or online at the start,” he says. “That was the biggest problem, but we managed to get rid of most stock and freeze a bit.
“Now, it’s a whole different way of looking at it. We’ve been ordering to fill orders, not ordering to entice people in. Our sales are way back, but we get a lot of support for our shop. Restarting is a big thing for a butchery.”
