Delivery to the Customer’s Front Door

“I’m originally from Sderot, and I opened the Bet Meatzvim Chai (“Chai Design House”) clothing and footwear store in 2003, at the same time the first Qassam rocket fell on the city. Since then we have expanded in Sderot and Netivot, with four branches of Mania Jeans and Noise Jeans for children’s clothing. We work with some of the biggest brands, and we have built up a loyal customer base over many years. I foresaw the decline that would occur in the wake of the coronavirus, and so I closed Bet Meatzvim on March 8th. We were after the winter and a month before Passover, which is usually a period that provides breathing space for the rest of the year in terms of income – and there were no customers. Even the staff were concerned about coming in; fearful of putting their families at risk. A week later, I closed the four branches of Mania and Noise and we entered lockdown.

“As a preliminary step, we furloughed our shop staff and branch managers – almost 20 people. During the lockdown, I sat at home with the kids and the family and walked the dogs in the fields around my kibbutz, Nir Am. Throughout the period we kept in touch with our regular clients via social media. For a few of them, who really wanted to dress up for the Passover Seder, we even made a concerted effort and delivered the clothes they wanted to their front door.

“We reopened in early May and restored most of our staff to the stores. It was a good month for sales, because people hadn’t bought clothes for a few months previously. In June we fell back a bit, mostly due to concerns around cancellations of the relaxed restrictions and the fact that weddings and other events hadn’t yet returned to normal, so there was nobody to dress. I’m still waiting for the support we were promised from the state that never arrived. We’ve worked hard since reopening, so at the moment our situation is relatively good and our turnover is similar to last year. At the same time, we’re treading water, which is not good, because a company should always be registering growth year on year.”

The writer is the owner of Bet Meatzvim Chai, Mania Jeans and Noise Jeans. Sderot and Netivot, 050-5463900.