Stay Local

The businesses in Barry adjusting to lockdown.

It’s been a strange few months hasn’t it? What started off as an experience like nothing we’d ever seen before has now become the new normal.

For businesses it can be hard to know the right thing to do in these situations. Do we keep selling or shut down? Should we move online or keep customers 2m apart. There are options but who knows which one to choose? If we hear the words unprecedented or pivot again we’ll be making an unprecedented pivot in the other direction.

But it seems that lots of businesses in Barry have pulled up their socks and worked extremely hard to get their business through this. Here’s a few that we spoke to who are thriving, not just surviving in lockdown.

AWESOME WALES As lockdown hit and supermarkets were running out of pasta, rice and hand wash, Awesome Wales was well stocked with everything you need and no plastic in sight. The team decided to close the doors and offer delivery and collection, investing in a van that means they can cover parts of the Vale of Glamorgan too.

HOPKINS BUTCHERS Last year Hopkins Butchers launched their new website to take orders online without having anyone in the shop, and their delivery options mean they can support vulnerable customers.

Having some normality during this time especially for the elderly or vulnerable is vital and now BBQ season is finally here we know the team will be busier than ever!

STRONG WOMEN SQUAD Originally based at Cardio Core Fitness in Barry, Samara has taken her personal training business Strong Women Squad online to bring a livestream of workouts for women everyday. Last month Samara launched their brand new website so you can sign up for classes online and keep fit from home during lockdown!

PALETTA PIZZERIA We’ll be the first to admit we missed our Paletta fix while the restaurant was closed, but luckily Rhys and Sara are back open and ready for takeaways. As well as having some of our favourite dishes they have also started doing ‘make your own pizza’ kits to get the little ones involved too.

VALE PLUS ValePlus is active in supporting the adults with additional learning needs who attend their four training centres. They initiated a range of support measures, with regular telephone calls, providing learning activity packs through the post and sharing learning resources online, holding Zoom meetings and delivering food parcels. These services have been undertaken by a dedicated team and have been highly appreciated by those they support in the local community.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT DELI After having a brief hiatus for a few weeks, The Deli is back! If you hadn’t noticed the queue to the end of High Street, you will now. With new measures for social distancing in place and sanitizer for customers to use, The Deli is back to provide us with our favourite baguettes with delivery and pick up options. Leroy has been calling their vulnerable and elderly customers to place their order and for a chat, something we know is really important to all of their customers.

BARRYBADOS If we can’t get down to Barry Island at least we can drink from our Barrybados mug! Louis at Barrybados has had to shut up shop for the time being but online orders have been more popular than ever.

‘I used the website to my advantage during lockdown by offering a big 20% off, something I’ve never done before. That combined with a video of Nessa... gave me my highest week of online trading in history.'

BEAUTIFUL LILLY Beautiful Lily on Barry High Street has been busy during lockdown with plenty of people sending flowers to their loved ones. They are introducing lots of new varieties of flowers, so if you’re looking for something more exotic why not see what they have on offer!