Coronavirus: Wigan village shops set up their own home delivery service

Village shopkeepers have joined forces to set up a home delivery service for customers aimed at minimising the spread of coronavirus.

Reynolds’ butchers and Paulo’s Fruit and Veg are neighbours in Parbold and have begun taking their produce to residents’ addresses as concerns grow about Covid-19 infection.

A sizeable percentage of their clientele is older people and with this age group being particularly vulnerable to the disease, the businesses’ bosses said it makes sense to bring in these free temporary measures.

Tony Reynolds has run the butcher’s on The Common with wife Helen for the past three years.

He said: “Self-isolation is an act of care for your community, as well as yourself.

“Our more vulnerable customers are anxious about visiting some shops and worried about the possibility of having to stay at home at some point in the future.

“Teaming up with Dave Fitzsimmons at Paolo’s of Parbold Fruit and Vegetable shop and offering free delivery to the local area while Covid-19 is around is out attempt to reassure and thank them for taking the responsible step of self-isolating.

“If we all think of our community first, rather than just ourselves, we believe our whole society will cope much better.”

Mr Reynolds said that staff from the two shops were sharing the workload with deliveries, taking each other’s produce to houses - which have been mainly local but there have been a couple of trips to Skelmersdale and Orrell - when it fitted in best.

A number of part-time and retired people in Parbold had also risen to the challenge and offered their transporting services.

He added: “There has been a lot of support in the village.

“This kind of togetherness is the kind of thing that happens in small communities like this.

“It seems the natural thing to do. It’s a good bit of networking between the shops and common sense when residents, especially the elderly, are being advised to stay indoors.

“Some of our older customers don’t normally do a ‘big shop’ - they like coming in each day to get a couple of sausages for their tea or some such. In fact there are some who we sometimes deliver to them already if they’re unsteady on their feet. It works fine as a system.”

Mr Reynolds said that there had been quite a few online inquiries about the new, temporary service in the last four days. We have sent out price lists.

“We are not expecting to do many deliveries just at the moment but for it to pick up in the next few weeks.”