BUSINESS is picking up in Woodley town centre, market stallholders have said, as shoppers regain their confidence post-pandemic.
Despite the Government postponing the end of lockdown restrictions, the town’s retailers said business is booming.
Kathy Osborne, owner of Kathy at Shedkraft, has been selling at Woodley Market for more than two years and believes it is faring better than other places where she trades.
“Woodley is one of the nicest markets I do,” she said. “It’s not heaving, people feel comfortable, and it’s full of regular, local people.”
While footfall is down compared to pre-pandemic shopping, Ms Osborne said Woodley town centre has “a great mix” of retailers to draw customers in.
“It’s really diverse,” she said. “It’s not only fruit and veg but there are a lot of craft stalls — it’s a great mix and it’s keeping people like me going.”
Sarah Zeneli, founder of Sparkle Vegan Events, said the Vegan Market has seen many “supportive visitors” in recent weeks too.
“As we have measures in place such as social distancing and hand sanitising, we understand that residents have felt confident enough to return to the markets,” she said.
“I think the main effect of the pandemic is that people have less disposable income so are thinking more about where they should spend their money and, luckily for us, are choosing to support small businesses.”
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Woodley Vegan Market set to return this weekend
But she said a few stallholders have closed their businesses due to coronavirus.
“However, with the final lifting of restrictions, we expect that customer confidence will build even stronger, more new businesses will start-up and join us, layouts can be adapted to allow even more stalls, and markets will eventually return to ‘normal’,” Ms Zeneli added.
Brian Fennelly, Woodley town centre manager, also agreed that the town’s Saturday markets have come back stronger — but he said he is not confident “[covid] is over until it’s all over”.
According to the town centre manager, there are currently more market stalls than there were in March last year.
“This summer, we’re getting decent footfall,” Mr Fennelly said. “But it’s too early to tell [what will happen in the long term].
“There’s still a bit of nervousness which is not helped by the Delta variant, so it’s been a bit stop-start understandably.”
He said some of Woodley has reacted to the latest change in lockdown restrictions in a similar way to the rest of the nation, with a few residents lacking the confidence to come out and shop.
“The effect [of the pandemic] is more psychological,” he said. “The [lockdown] date has been pushed back for a reason.
“We are looking ahead with confidence and optimism but we’ve got to be realistic.”
