“Click and collect” a small business saviour
Click and Collect has proven the saviour of local small business throughout the latest COVID-19 lockdowns.
While it may not be the same as trading-as-usual, ordering goods from your favourite local store by phone or online (the “click”) and then physically picking-up the item later from improvised counters (usually trestle tables) out the front of otherwise-closed stores (the “collect”), is the next-best thing.
Colour City locals have quickly-adapted to this new pandemic-era shopping trend that has proved a lifeline to shut-down local businesses with shoppers seen queuing daily outside stores including DG Cycles in Lords Place.
“We’ve been doing it a month now, we introduced it this lockdown because we are more restricted than the last time. We modelled it on what Sydney bike stores were doing when they locked down,” owner Scott Turner said.
“They can pay over the phone, or we have wireless EFTPOS when they arrive.”
The business model allows the stores to continue paying their bills and servicing their customers while not breaching the increasingly-onerous lockdown measures designed to control further spread of COVID-19.
Local shoppers have taken to the trend by both being able to purchase items locally and thereby supporting main street while also avoiding the log-jam currently being experienced by Australia Post for mail-order items.
“It’s definitely allowed us to remain operating, which is great… it’s good to be open,” Scott enthused. “It’s been going good, yeah. We’re surprised that it’s been quite busy,” he said.
The store has also been able to maintain stock better this year than in 2020 when the sudden worldwide lockdown saw international production and supply lines suspended for months on end.
Ï reckon it’s busier than last year when we had serious stock shortages, we simply couldn’t get a lot of the bike lines and spares that we normally supply,” he said.
“It’s definitely up on last year, and we’ll try and keep it going as long as we can,” he said.
Customer Andrew Jarrett with son Alex are also enthusiastically using click and collect to support local businesses in the Colour City as much as they can, dropping-off their mountain bike for repairs as we chat.
“I think it’s absolutely perfect,” Andrew said. “I support it 100 per cent. I work out at Orange Anglican Grammar, and we have many families who come to the school, and this is one way we can support them,” he said.
“We’ve also done ‘click and collect’ for food from Café Latte and for other businesses as well, it’s a way of supporting locals through these tough times,” Andrew added.
“We’ve dropped-off the mountain bike here for repairs, it seems to be working just fine,” he concluded.