THE atmosphere in Whakatane’s central business district yesterday could best be described as a peculiar combination of pre-Christmas shopping bustle and Soviet Russian queuing.
Support for local businesses was on most people’s minds as The Strand was crowded with people who were clearly overjoyed to be out and about and able to walk into any retail store other than a supermarket. Luckily the mood was positive as patience was required where queues of over 25-to-30 people trailed along the street from some stores.
A lot of the queuing was due to the need for social distancing though some places clearly had more customers than they normally would. Larger businesses such as banks had security guards at their front doors while smaller businesses had a sign-in book and hand sanitiser to negotiate before heading inside.
The Spark shop was noticeably busier than normal, with customers queuing across the entire width of Wharaurangi.
Though banks have been opening one day a week during alert level three, the queue outside BNZ was long, but moving efficiently.
The Warehouse had the longest queue of all the businesses, with people walking out the door with purchases from fishing rods to clothing.
Paper Plus, which runs both a Lotto counter and the Postshop service was particularly busy, with owner Graham Dennis frantically directing customers to fill in their contact details at the door before directing them to the counter they required.
Julie Jukes, at Rositas fashion store made the process into a competition by getting people to fill in cards they could drop into a bowl for a draw to win a $100 voucher.
While the Beacon were there, Teresa Gradon and Roslyn Peach from the Whakatane Information Centre were in the store shopping for new winter uniforms for the centre’s staff. “We are most absolutely doing all our shopping locally,” Ms Gradon said.
Trudy Enckevort from Too Pretty said customers had been very loyal, and local businesses had put competitiveness aside to support one another.
“Even local retailers have been buying from each other. I had one regular customer phone me during lockdown saying she had been looking on a website of one of the labels I carry, Radicool Kids, and did I have a particular item in the size she wanted. When I said yes, I did, she asked me to put it aside for her. It was so lovely that she bought it through me, because she could have just ordered it online from the website.”
Cafes were doing a roaring trade, despite the physical distancing restrictions, requiring them to space tables a metre apart and the need for full table service.
Javaman Café had both their indoor seating service as well as the takeaway window they have set up during lockdown operating.
Owner Tony Edelsden said he wanted to keep the window open because he didn’t want to make people go inside the store if they weren’t comfortable.
He had a very strict policy about customers filling in the contact tracing form before coming inside, although customers with smartphones had the option to scan the QR code instead.
He said after all the effort and expense Javaman had gone to during all the Covid 19 levels, he was disappointed to see that not all businesses were being as careful.
He said it was wonderful to have customers back in the store.
“Though we have been operating our takeaway window for a few weeks the café has felt so empty. It is Just great to hear all the chatter and see all the smiling faces.”
Meanwhile, in Kopeopeo, it seemed people were happy to queue for over an hour for a long overdue haircut.