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"Treats are good for the soul, and so good for sharing and making memories too. We think they're essential. So we kept going during the lockdowns, doing free deliveries of personalised 'COVID Survival Supplies' and 'Pick-Me-Up Kits' with things like hot chocolate, mini mallows, tea, and fun activities such as origami to inspire some smiles. It took a long time to make these kits but time was one thing we had lots of during COVID. We were here every day, taking phone calls and online orders. Because we couldn’t open fully, we developed 'Letterbox Sweets' that we could deliver by mail or pop through ourselves. We also turned the counter around (the rewiring was a nightmare), and divided the shop into 2 so that we could serve more people at once. We needed to keep going for our customers and it was healthy for us to continue to work too. We benefited from coming up with lots of creative ideas for fun new packs and labels (we print our own) and just keeping busy. Now it all seems a blur.
“We’ve been living here and running our shop Hopscotch for 11 or 12 years now. I was a research gardener and Michael was in IT, and when we were both made redundant we set this up. We started off with sweets, then cake, then tea, and we're always moving things on. Now we're doing a little garden nursery in our back yard too, because it's a real sun-trap and lots of our customers were telling us they couldn't get to garden centres. Everyone’s COVID experience is very different. We are NOT all in it together. It’s been really tough for some and we’d give extra sweets to those with real difficulties, like the homeless. Most people were feeling very isolated as they couldn’t mix, although some of the streets did have a community feel - people would sit in their gardens, drinking wine. Everyone down the High Street here is wonderful. We do feel very, very lucky, and the aim here is always to highlight and celebrate the goodthings in life."
"Treats are good for the soul, and so good for sharing and making memories too. We think they're essential. So we kept going during the lockdowns, doing free deliveries of personalised 'COVID Survival Supplies' and 'Pick-Me-Up Kits' with things like hot chocolate, mini mallows, tea, and fun activities such as origami to inspire some smiles. It took a long time to make these kits but time was one thing we had lots of during COVID. We were here every day, taking phone calls and online orders. Because we couldn’t open fully, we developed 'Letterbox Sweets' that we could deliver by mail or pop through ourselves. We also turned the counter around (the rewiring was a nightmare), and divided the shop into 2 so that we could serve more people at once. We needed to keep going for our customers and it was healthy for us to continue to work too. We benefited from coming up with lots of creative ideas for fun new packs and labels (we print our own) and just keeping busy. Now it all seems a blur.
“We’ve been living here and running our shop Hopscotch for 11 or 12 years now. I was a research gardener and Michael was in IT, and when we were both made redundant we set this up. We started off with sweets, then cake, then tea, and we're always moving things on. Now we're doing a little garden nursery in our back yard too, because it's a real sun-trap and lots of our customers were telling us they couldn't get to garden centres. Everyone’s COVID experience is very different. We are NOT all in it together. It’s been really tough for some and we’d give extra sweets to those with real difficulties, like the homeless. Most people were feeling very isolated as they couldn’t mix, although some of the streets did have a community feel - people would sit in their gardens, drinking wine. Everyone down the High Street here is wonderful. We do feel very, very lucky, and the aim here is always to highlight and celebrate the goodthings in life."
