‘Colleagues, community and toilet rolls the stand-outs’
COLLEAGUES going above and beyond, community spirit and the toilet roll ‘saga’ were stand-out moments of 2020 for Mark Cox.
Applauding his ‘amazing’ colleagues, he said they had stepped up beyond what could be expected of them as the pandemic struck.
Asked what particular things stuck in his mind, he says: ‘The panic buying in March and the toilet roll saga.
‘So people responding and buying the level of toilet roll that we saw happen was a stand-out.
‘But I think after that, the real stand-out for me has been around how the community in both islands got together – and this sense of the local and the community being important again.
‘Looking out for each other, helping each other in what have been really difficult circumstances. That’s been great to see, and that’s a wish and a hope that that continues into the new year, this new-found sense of community comes together again.’
Mr Cox also highlighted how the retailer has remained committed to supporting the community, despite increased costs hitting the business as a result of the pandemic. In particular, he talked about food poverty.
‘One of the easiest things we could have done is to stop the sort of levels of community support because we’ve seen an increased cost hit our business. The cost of operations has gone up significantly as we’ve managed the extra levels of support we’ve had to provide for stores,’ he said.
‘But what we wanted to do was make sure that we continued to support the community where we could. So we’ve given out a lot more food donations in both islands.
‘We’ve got a great initiative that we ran up until Christmas where, again we gave out some Christmas boxes to those that are most at need.
‘Being able to continue to support the community in difficult times is really important to us. It’s part of the principles which we operate to. So we can do that, we’re a long-term business and those people are members, they are owners of our business, and it’s important that we continue to support the community.’
Mr Cox added: ‘Food banks have become part of people’s everyday lives now. So, in the past they’d have been an emergency call that they could use at very trying times.
‘But what shocks me is the level of food poverty in the islands and the amount that people are now reliant on those food banks to survive on a weekly basis. And that’s something we all need to work hard to address.’
