WHEN COVID HIT HOME FOR CASEY

“They left it so

vague. I felt like a drug dealer”

JOHN CASEY felt the pinch of the lockdown after his Charlestown hardware business was forced to close at the end of March. ‘Our business is right here in the middle, looking out on all the roads out of Charlestown. A lot of people said to see Casey’s closed was a kind of — “Jesus, this is hitting home”... The day we were closing, we were left in limbo. March 28, I’ll never forget it. We were considered an essential outlet on the Tuesday — are we not an essential outlet now? I missed Leo Varadkar’s address. Then we got a call from head office saying, “Yes, you have to shut your shop”. ‘That day we were supposed to close. I put up a statement on our Facebook page. We said we would be following Government protocols and closing our doors — that day was like Armageddon. It was a struggle to cope that day.’ Putting his mobile number up at the front of the shop as a sort of online emergency outlet prompted a flood of calls he never anticipated. ‘Our staff were laid off with Covid-19 payments. I did my best to look after them, to top them up as well. So I said I’m going to have to generate a couple of quid for that. Little did I envisage what the seven weeks would bring. It was novel for the first two. It was exciting. But by God did it beat me to a pulp. ‘At the time I expected maybe five or 10 calls but my number must have been shared far and wide. They were coming from all corners, trying to keep themselves busy. ‘I was left in such a dilemma. We had no staff. Our shop was locked. I was operating on the phone. The kids were off school. My wife is a guard so I was trying to mind three kids, juggle the shop, take 120-plus phone calls a day, about everything. Fence paint. Plumbing problems. Timber – “I want to build a small shed out the back”. Gardening was a big one. Paint was the big thing. ‘They left it so vague for us as a business. I felt like a drug dealer. One customer came in, and I was watching him from the darkness of our shop floor. I told him I had taken the credit card payment over the phone from him. I had a brown bag. He came up to the back door of the shop. I watched him on camera. Handed the bag out to him through a tiny gap. ‘He says, “Jeez, this is class.” I said, “I feel like a drug dealer!” He shouted back, “Well, you’re friggin’ good at it!” I think it was a roll of cable I was giving him.’