Plymouth residents urged to support local businesses this Christmas
As England starts its second lockdown, people are being told to shop local
People are being urged to shop local this Christmas as England enters its second lockdown.
Steve Hughes, CEO of Plymouth City Centre Company, says that Plymouth businesses need support from the public if they are to survive.
He says that there are currently mixed emotions amongst local shop owners about what the future holds:
“Some businesses are being quite pragmatic and they’re sort of saying ‘at least we’ve got a clear direction now and if this helps us to get on top of the virus and then we can reopen again on December the 2nd, at least that gives us a month of trading for Christmas’.
“But for others, particularly the small businesses, they really depend on the footfall and people popping in every day.
“At the moment we’re just doing everything we possibly can to help them through this awful ordeal over the next month.”
New lockdown restrictions came into force on 5 November and are set to last until 2 December.
The message from the Government is to stay at home to try to bring coronavirus case numbers down.
As a result, all pubs, restaurants, gyms and non-essential shops have had to close.
Steve says it makes it difficult for them to plan anything:
“Only a few weeks ago we were looking forward to the Christmas lights being switched on and the Christmas Market – which we thought we could deliver safely – but there is a bit of nervousness about lockdown so we had to cancel that.
“It’s just really difficult to plan for anything at the moment, but all of our local businesses are resilient.
“They’re an innovative crowd, some of them will continue to trade through lockdown, but in different ways.”
Drake Circus will remain open, as stores inside the shopping centre – like Boots and Marks & Spencer’s – keep trading.
During the last lockdown, the City Centre Company and Plymouth City Centre came together to launch Shop4Plymouth.
The website was created to help the people reconnect with Plymouth businesses and encourage customers to shop local.
Steve says they now have over 300 businesses registered:
“These businesses need loyalty and help. So, we are urging shoppers to think of local businesses when they’re doing their Christmas shopping this year.
“The City Centre employs around 16,000 people and for those jobs to survive, we really need to help our local businesses.
“I think there is a real danger that more jobs will be lost, more businesses will close and therefore there will be more unemployment, so I don’t think we can understate that this is an economic crisis as well as a health crisis.
“But I think Plymouth is very strong, we’re in a good position for recovery. There’s been an awful lot of investment in the City Centre with businesses like The Box opening and as soon as we do reopen again, we hope that people will return and return safely.”