Oxfordshire cafes do a roaring trade in lockdown

Many coffee shops and cafes have continued to stay open for takeaway food and drink over the November lockdown and report trading a lot ‘better than expected’.

However, there are concerns about what will happen if restrictions are not lifted as planned on December 3.

Rachel Broadbent, the owner of R&R Cafe in Abingdon Market Place, said that although they are not trading as much as previous years, they have ‘managed to tick along quite well’.

Read also: Student goes viral after posting video about Blackbird Leys

She said: “Abingdon has been good for trade because it is a quieter town, a market town, with lots of walkers.

“We have a lot of very regular, loyal customers who are our bread and butter, they come in every day without fail.

“We have noticed a lack of food sales, our lunch trade has gone because we have no office workers, but people are very happy to take drinks and cakes away.

“We are doing okay, better than we hoped.”

Read here: Campaigners shocked after council buys green land for housing

The cafe is hoping that they will be able to fully reopen on December 3, when the lockdown is meant to end.

Mrs Broadbent said: “Our gut feeling is that it will be very hard to keep retail shut before Christmas, and there will be an uproar, but then again we do want to do things safely.

“We would be annoyed if they say we can five days off for Christmas, where people can visit all over, then we all have to shut down again in January.”

The Bicester Bean Coffee Shop, on London Road in Bicester, has also remained open over lockdown but has noticed differences in sales between now and the summer restrictions.

Alyson Clifton, the owner of the Bicester cafe, said: “We were mega busy in the first lockdown, but this one has been a bit different, and obviously not as busy because kiddies are still at school, you cannot meet in groups of six outside, it’s too cold for that anyway, and lots of businesses that couldn’t open las time can now.

“It is all a bit strange. I really hope that Boris does stick to his guns though and that all hospitality can open on December 3 like he has promised.”

Read here: Cafe Loco in St Aldates, Oxford, to shut its doors due to lack of tourists

The HandleBar Cafe and Kitchen, on St Michael's Street, in Oxford expressed said that whilst their take out service was working ‘really well’ the city centre, where they are located, is ‘completely empty’ a lot of the time.

Celine Wills, the owner of the cafe, said: “In June when we were coming out of lockdown lots of people were keen to go out, now people aren’t so keen.

“But there are students still in the city, even though it’s not enough, we believe we are doing a service to the community by staying open and our staff who are desperate to work rather than spend another month at home.

“There is a massive concern that we will not be able to open in December or January, and I want to the business to be open and thriving, I want to be serving our customers, but I am not sure reopening restaurants or cafes is the best thing to do considering the situation.

“When Oxford was on tier 2 that was so difficult to enforce people were coming from different households, you could tell they were from different households, but you can’t not serve them if they say they live together.

“It was very difficult trying to do the right thing for the business, community and staff and the pandemic situation.

“The financial situation is dire, but the community is there and if anything we’ll come out stronger.”

Read also: Elderly woman knocked over by Deliveroo cyclist

The Society Cafe which is also located on St Michael’s street, decided, however, to close its doors for this lockdown.

Owner, Adrian Campbell-Howard, said: “The news of a second lockdown was a little bit of a relief because the tier system was very hard to work with; people were afraid to come into town and we were operating without financial aid.

“So it was a relief that we could furlough our amazing staff, who had been working extra hard.

“The lockdown was only a month and knowing the team was going to be looked after, we weren’t going to stay open to make marginal profits.”