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Rough Trade has shared its trading plans for the forthcoming coronavirus lockdown, which comes into effect on tomorrow (November 5).
On Friday (October 31), Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a second national lockdown for England that will see non-essential shops such as record stores close until at least December 2.
While the month of quarantine will impact independent retail stores and HMV during a busy Q4 period in the lead up to Christmas, many record shops put measures in place during the previous lockdown that allowed them to continue trading online. Many stores set up delivery services or a click-and-collect option in a bid to survive.
Rough Trade, which has two stores in London as well as shops in Bristol and Nottingham, has now confirmed that all of its stores will be open for click-and-collect purchases from Monday to Saturday, 11am-6pm.
UK UPDATE
From Thursday 5th November we will be offering a Click & Collect service 11am-6pm, Monday-Saturday at all stores. Order at https://t.co/WF2YcZFpxv, ring the bell on arrival and someone will be along to help.
Keep safe out there. Thank you for your continued support x pic.twitter.com/EFZoGWCNrd
— Rough Trade (@RoughTrade) November 3, 2020
The company also opened a dedicated e-commerce fulfilment centre in Bristol earlier this year.
“When consumer demand was forced entirely online, our immediate challenge was being able to fulfil orders in a timely manner,” Rough Trade director Stephen Godfroy said (via Music Week). “This new, dedicated facility is now enabling us to provide a first-class online service, combining personable customer care with prompt delivery, ensuring our rapidly increasing number of new online customers keep returning after their all-important first purchase.”
In addition to an online mail-order operation, Rough Trade will also be taking phone orders during store hours for delivery or click-and-collect.
For more information or to place an order, visit the official Rough Trade website here.
Back in September, it was revealed that vinyl sales continued to rise in the UK despite the coronavirus crisis causing significant problems for other areas of the music industry.
Last month saw over 1,000 venues, theatres, festivals, arts spaces and organisations in England celebrate in being awarded in the latest wave of £1.57billion Cultural Recovery Funding, helping them to weather the storm of coronavirus closures into next Spring.
However, many fear that freelance and self-employed workers and road crew are being “ignored” by the chancellor’s new Job Support Scheme and that the CRF bailout favours bricks and mortar establishments and the people employed by them.
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