It’s been a tough time for Tony’s Continental, the family-run greengrocers’ on the High Road. Various factors forced its closure in the first two weeks of April while its owners Chris Athanasiou and Michael Paphitis re-grouped and devised new business strategies for this year of coronavirus.

Their shop has now re-opened, to the relief of its fiercely loyal local customers, and both men are looking to the future with cautious optimism. “We were burned out,” Michael says now of the recent closure. “We couldn’t hack it anymore.” Chris agrees: “It just wasn’t sustainable.”

Early reactions

Several factors were involved. “Once the virus started kicking off, people started panicking,” Michael recalls. “Suddenly the small local shop was the ‘in’ thing, because we’d started social distancing, allowing only three customers in at any one time.” So Tony’s had more customers than they could handle, at a time when, as Chris says, “supplies suddenly became difficult. We don’t have that huge network of suppliers that the supermarkets have, so we were limited in terms of what we could buy in.”

Supply problems

At the same time, there was ‘panic buying’ at the markets, where food supplies were suddenly not coming in from Italy, Spain and Holland, because staff were self-isolating. The big chains bulk-bought everything they could, leaving less for independent traders like Tony’s to buy.

“Suddenly we didn’t have enough flour, eggs, beans, loaves or pasta,” said Chris. “That was difficult for local people. And it’s the locals who are in here, day in and day out, who we want to help look after. Being part of this community [Chris’s father Tony originally opened the store in 1971] means we want to look after them. To us, they come first.”

That everyday chat

This is more than just business-speak. Chris and Michael are cheerfully sociable to locals who visit Tony’s, and invariably chat to them. “That way,” Chris says, “we know who they are and what they’d like. We put a lot of hard work into it. Our research comes through everyday chatting to people. We don’t do pie charts or graphs; it’s just through conversations.” He is cautiously positive about the future: “This was one of many hurdles. There’ll be lots more twists and turns to come. But we have to be positive and help each other. We take every day as it comes.”