Traders surviving toughest of times
BUSINESSES HOPEFUL CUSTOMERS WILL GRADUALLY RETURN
SHOP owners in Sneinton have spoken out about the impact the pandemic has had on their businesses as lockdown restrictions begin to ease.
While some store workers were positive about the future with lockdown restrictions continuing to be eased, others said the pandemic had had a major impact on their small businesses.
Abdul Ghani, 71, owner of News Shop in Sneinton Dale, said: “It has definitely been a change, and we can’t survive like this. We have lowered our prices to encourage people to buy from us. Our regular customers have supported us, and it is encouraging to see people buying from their local shop.”
Mr Ghani has been running his newsagent in the area for 35 years, and says the pandemic has hit local businesses like never before.
“We used to have people queuing outside the store to pick a newspaper in the morning before lockdown. Now there is hardly anyone coming in, and we deliver up to 10 papers a day to vulnerable residents in Sneinton.”
Other business owners, however, are positive about the future of Sneinton high street.
Asaif Marnut, 46, co-owner of a supermarket on Sneinton Dale, said: “It has difficult, but we are still surviving somehow. It is getting better now with more customers coming in. We never had to throw away products, people still buy them which is good.”
A worker at the same store that has fruits and vegetables on display said the business has been slowly recovering.
Mohammed Aham, 21, said: “Now I can say that we are almost as busy as we were before. We have less suppliers and I felt a drop in the workload during lockdown.”
Shahnawaz Dhar, 25, has worked at Nafees bakery in Sneinton Dale for the last four years and said: “It has been steady lately. It is getting better than before. We had our regular customers coming in, and we are still getting our deliveries from a factory is Radford. It is like we are finally recovering after a difficult year.”