Wholesale is on lockdown and online is now the new norm for our boutique coffee business. We are roasting coffee once a week and fulfilling orders with bags of delicious freshly roasted beans that are now falling into the hands of old and new customers locally and nationally.
When making local deliveries I find myself squeezed into my little smart car with a pile of addressed book boxes in the passenger seat and my telephone showing me the Waze. Often driving down Closes that I shouldn't have, and still manage to make my escape. When eventually I reach my destination the box is left resting on the door step and doorbell is rung and the knocker is knocked, then just like playing 'knock down ginger' I twist around and make a 10m dash to the garden gate. My head turning over my shoulder as I trot to see if they have answered my call. When they answer, I am the first to break the ice, falling over myself with words of thanks and how genuinely delighted we are with their first order and what extreme good fortune to be able to make their acquaintance in person during this very difficult time. There have been many responses from new customers about how they had never heard of us before and did not know we existed. I smile quietly to myself and hope that once they have tasted our coffee it might be difficult to go back to drinking someone else's. Keeping social distancing and meeting so many local new online customers in person and delivering to their doors has been an absolute privilege and a big positive I have taken from this pandemic
Will we ever go back to the way we were? Do we ever shake anothers hand again? Or avoid making any unnecessary trips abroad to stop the pollution of our new bluebell skies? When locked down at home we have been enjoying a family of robins in total ignorance of social distancing and nesting at our front door. The fledglings have just flown today and I am already missing the way we have been these past few weeks, just not the way it is.
