Shop Local Showcase – Celebrating Northampton Town Businesses During Lockdown and The Festive Season
To support people to shop locally and safely during lockdown a new ‘Phone or Click & Collect’ service has been designed and unveiled by Northampton town centre Business Improvement District (BID).
Although non-essential retailers have been forced to close their doors during November’s lockdown, the government has confirmed that they CAN remain open for customer deliveries and click-and-collect.
For this reason and to enable retailers to continue trading – despite most having to close – the BID has opened a new ‘Phone or Click & Collect’ unit at number 64 St Giles Street, Northampton.
Customers can continue to place and pay for orders directly with town centre businesses (online or via the phone rather than in person), but instead of having to visit multiple stores to collect their orders they will be able to pick up all their shopping from one location – at the BID’s unit on St Giles Street.
Mark Mullen, BID Operations Manager, said: “Northampton town centre BID is committed to encouraging encourage people to continue to shop locally and we are here to support town centre businesses and to help them continue to trade.
“Supporting our local businesses has never been more important this new scheme means businesses will be able to continue trading during this second national lockdown, albeit in a different way. Instead of welcoming shoppers into their stores, people will need to place their orders online or over the phone. Businesses will then parcel up and label orders and drop them off at our St Giles Street unit.
“This enables customers to collect all their shopping in one go – even if there are lots of orders from stores across the town centre. Everyone can continue to shop local, support local businesses but will not need to go to more than one place to pick everything up.
“With challenge comes opportunity and we are confident this new service will help businesses to keep trading and people to continue shopping local.”
This Phone or Click & Collect service will be up and running Thursday 12 November. It will operate Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm during lockdown.
Paul and Rachel from Mooch on St Giles Street said, “Every order will be carefully picked, packed and wrapped in our signature wrapping – and customers can even choose luxury wrapping, making gifting super-simple. When the order is ready we pop it over to the collection point and send our customers confirmation that their order is ready to collect; customers just need to confirm their order number with some ID to collect. The beauty of this is that our customers can then collect all their shopping in one go – not just the orders they placed with us.
“We are also doing our own click and collect service (Collect @MOOCH) for a few hours a day, but this service gives our customers even more flexibility and we are really excited about it.”
Customer guidance:
⦁ Do your shopping and make payments directly with town centre businesses
⦁ Confirm with the business your preferred date and time for the collection of your order
⦁ On your arrival at the BID’s Phone or Click & Collect unit please be prepared to provide your name and postcode and details of the store/s you have placed orders with
⦁ Photo ID must be shown upon collection of age-restricted products (photo driving license or passport only please)
⦁ Face masks must be worn upon collection and you will be asked to queue outside the unit to ensure social distancing. The collection of your order will be outside the unit, without entering the premises.
⦁ Customers will be asked to sign a Delivery Note as proof of collection and must not visit the unit if they display any COVID symptoms.
Other plans to support town centre businesses and to help everyone shop local in the lead-up to Christmas have also been unveiled by Northampton town centre BID. The BID’s new ‘Shop Local Showcase’ project is a dedicated online area packed with stories from and about businesses. These include promotions, how businesses are adapting during lockdown, new products, and Christmas plans. Stories will be uploaded throughout November and December.
The BID has launched this project to throw the spotlight on our town centre’s incredible array of businesses. Businesses throughout the town centre will be encouraged to share their stories and product information on the ‘Shop Local Showcase’. Customers will then be able read all about them, be inspired with Christmas gift ideas and contact individual town centre businesses to place orders and to arrange to use the new ‘Phone or Click & Collect’ service.
For details visit: www.discovernorthampton.co.uk/shop-local-showcase
The BID will also be launching a new Festive Prize Draw in the next week – with £2,000 of shopping vouchers set to be awarded to a total of 20 shoppers, to spend in town centre businesses of their choice. The prize draws will take place in December and January. More details to follow.
If you’re a town centre business and have a story to share about how you’re adapting throughout lockdown, details of special offers or any festive promotions, please email Northampton Town BID on promotions@northamptonbid.co.uk
