Krispies to restart Click and Collect service very soon

Award winning Exmouth fish and chip shop Krispies will be restarting its Click and Collect service in May as restrictions on takeaways begin to be relaxed.

Nub News caught up with Krispies' owner Kelly Barnes today to talk about the return of the Click and Collect service to its Pines Road site and how the coronavirus lock down has impacted the business.

Krispies has two sites in Exmouth, one on Exeter Road and another on Pines Road. The Pines Road store will begin its click and collect service again from May 7.

The Pines Road store will be open for Click and Collect Thursday to Sunday, 12pm until 2pm and 5pm until 8.30pm.

All orders for Click and Collect will have an allocated time slot and to help with social distancing measure Krispies is urging customers to arrive on time to pick up their orders. You can find more information on the Click and Collect service here.

"Our Click and Collect service will restart at our Pines Road store on May 7," Kelly told Nub News.

"I am slightly nervous I must admit but we've got stringent conditions in place to protect staff and customers. There will be a table at the door, customers will be given a time slot and an order number and their food will be wrapped and waiting for them when they arrive."

In the early days of the coronavirus outbreak there was a lot of uncertainty over takeaways and if they would remain open. The decision by McDonald's to close its UK restaurants appears to have been a watershed moment.

"The initial shutting of our doors was not a nice feeling," said Kelly.

"I think it was McDonald's closing which pushed people in our industry to close their doors. If McDonald's, a massive company, could not find a way to stay open, how could we?

"It's been stressful, we don't know what's going to be coming through the door. Usually when the sun is shining we're busy but under lock down it has been very difficult to predict.

"We've absolutely missed serving our customers. People have been really kind by supporting us, we're not keyworkers we're just doing our best to serve award winning chips."

According to Kelly since the lock down began their business revenue has dropped by two thirds, Kelly said: "It's been about survival, we want our staff to have a business to come back to.

"It was a difficult choice to close our doors, we didn't know if we would have a business to come back to. We refitted one of our shops recently so our overheads are large right now. It really was a worry.

"Getting support from our bank has not been as easy as the Government made out. We're still waiting to hear back on our application for a business interruption loan.

The rules on the opening of takeaways to the public were relaxed on Saturday but Kelly has decided not to fully reopen to the public just yet.

"They lifted the restriction for takeaways on Saturday, we can technically open our doors to the customers but we're not comfortable with that right now.

"We don't want to encourage our customers to travel long distances to us. For us, as a family business, it's about being morally responsible."

In an effort to support the NHS and keyworkers Krispies has also introduced a new NHS charity donation button on its website, allowing customers to donate as little as a pound.

"There's only so much we can do as a business right now but we wanted to give our customers a way of doing so."