LITTLE SHOP OF HEROES

Open all hours.. the local store owners who are helping communities cope during pandemic

- Jenny Morrison

They are the forgotten heroes on the front line, the corner shop owners who keep Scotland open all hours.

And although they might not be saving lives, they have never been more important. While supermarket chains have raked in millions from the spike in panic-buying and eating at home, corner shops have been revitalised too. From doing vital home deliveries to the most vulnerable and elderly, finding and packaging up pasta and toilet roll and even transporting medicine, they are the lifeline in many communities. And, after lockdown, these amazing corner shops might just be the answer to triggering the rebirth of the country’s high streets.

We could meet demand.. we’re toilet paper kings

FRANCO MARGIOTTA, 71 Owner of Margiotta’s – eight independent grocers in Lothians

I’ve been in this business for a long time and I’ve never experienced anything like this before.

Shopworkers are all on the front line – not saving lives like our doctors and nurses are but we are keeping people fed.

The rush for business came like a bolt out of the blue and we’re still very busy. There was a huge clamour for pasta, tinned tomatoes, pulses, baked beans, soap, and flour – which was surprising but maybe everyone has started baking?

We were fortunate that we had a good supply of toilet roll. We’ve got our own warehouse so always buy our toilet paper and tissues by the lorry-load. We’re toilet paper kings.

We’ve also a catering side to our business and, when we realised a lot of companies we worked with were having to close, we bought their pasta by the sackful and packaged it ourselves into 500g bags for customers to buy.