So here we are, almost 9 weeks since the UK Lockdown was imposed.
And we’d really like to thank you. Every day you’ve been ordering online from us. Coronavirus may be unprecedented, but so has the level of online orders we’ve been taking. Norfolk Yarn has always been a physical shop, mainly for the local population in Norwich, and then extending to the wider Norfolk/Suffolk and Cambridgeshire yarn lovers who come to Norwich for a visit. In the last 5 years we’ve seen the local custom joined by tourists to our city, mainly fueled by a change in shop location from the outer edges of the city to the very heart of it; the historic Pottergate in the heart of the beautiful Lanes district.
Occasionally we’d take an online or telephone order, either directed to us from one of our suppliers, or because a customer who’d come into the shop, had returned home and regretted not buying something else they’d seen. So we were a bit glum when Lockdown happened, wondering how long our delicious stock would sit on the shelves gathering dust before we could sell it again.
With a bit of optimism, I was dispatched to the local stationers to buy a few mail supplies. It was all very last minute - I think I went in about 10 minutes before they shut down. And then we shut the shop, went home and turned the news on.
And then your orders started to come in. Within days Becky had to order an emergency batch of mail envelopes; thankfully a local supplier was able to get them to my house within hours. We re-arranged our workshop table into a packing production line and after a few mishaps, managed to put together a working solution to both of us knowing if the other one had already sent out an order. Becky’s had to continue ordering new stock from her wholesalers - probably on the same scale as she was before the shop closed.
Packaging up orders!
Everything within the 3 postcode areas closest to the shop get delivered by bike. And everything else goes 1st class. Although we’re working within the restricted opening hours of the post office nearest to us, we do manage to get 95% of orders out within 24 hours of them being ordered. Even Sundays will see us packing away in the shop.
Boo’s bike ready for deployment.
So once again, a huge thank you - thank you for being addicted to yarn, or for starting a new craft, or for taking up a woolly lockdown project. Your support has been appreciated over and over.
Although we are starting to look forward to when we can re open the shop, we understand that some of you will continue to need to shield. So rest assured, the online orders will still be available for you.
As a little reminder, we are giving free 1st class P&P or delivery if you use the code C20 on any order £20 or over.
Boo
ps - huge thank you to Caroline and Dee, and their respective husbands, for not only buying online, but also agreeing to a Delivery Doorstop Photo for this blog
