Click & Meet (Illustration: Farjana Islam)

This is how shopping in lockdown works.

Who says you cannot buy new clothes simply because you’ve got nowhere to go. When it involves online shopping we are so conditioned to go straight to the big brand outlets that we regularly ignore our local, independent shops. Whether it is a treat for yourself, or family, or a present for your loved ones. At the same time as you prefer to shop in the neighborhood, you’re scattering the love and making a difference in a small business also cheering up your blessed recipient.

During the lockdown, a number of your favorite independent shops are now available to buy online. Same high-quality, extremely satisfactory service, and the fuzzy feeling you get after you know you’ve supported a small family business.

Go shopping, regardless of lockdown – in times of empty shopping streets, many folks switch to purchase orders from giants like Amazon, eBay, Zalando, etc. But that can not be the case: because the local retailers in Kiel still selling their products to customers via several ways.

Even if the shops must be closed due to lockdown: within the crisis, there are still numerous ways to support local retailers with purchases. Quality and authenticity are guaranteed. 

Customers can often choose the products they need via the website or, within the traditional way, by looking into the shop from the window that has been specially prepared for the purpose of attracting customers. 

Some retailers also offer video calls via WhatsApp, which provides retailers the chance to show customers items within the store by the camera. The team from “Licht.Norkeweit” from Molfsee is now advising it to the customers via video conference. Also, the toy store “Villa Kinderland” from Preetz presents a high range of short films, including Instagram marketing.

A lot of retailers also communicate by email or phone. Most of them, just like the bag manufacturer, for example, “Bootsmann am Tiessenkai” in Kiel-Holtenau, offer their customers a full range of options for finding the item they need within the range either online or during “Shop window shopping.”

How Do The Products Get To The Customers? 

The “Click & Meet” principle is widespread: customers order their products, ideally, obtain them online and pick them up themselves when the products are dispensed from the shop. This may happen in a very personal way on a small scale, like at the furniture store “Stilfrei” on Holtenauer Strasse in Kiel. The owners Nathalie and Rhodea Sellschopp open two hours every day for collectors, who are left individually within the shop to gather their products. 

This is done on a high scale by the Hornbach ironmongery store in Kiel, which makes its product available for collection at a pick-up station outside of the shop. Such pick-up stations are also offered by the electronics specialist Medimax and HMC Möbel, both in Schwentinental.

But if you currently opt to support local retailers from home, you’ll have the ordered products sent to you in the normal way at most shops. Some even offer their own delivery service in the realm. The “Kosmos” store in Kiel’s Holstenstrasse, for instance, usually delivers products within Kiel on the same day by bicycle courier service and the delivery is free of cost.

The Preetz “Buchhandlung am Markt” also delivers its books itself, the Kiel bookseller Wolfgang Erichsen sends a cart with books each day, and Britta Janzen from “Wolle und Wunder” from Kiel often drives over to her customers within the evenings.

Image of a retail shop (Photo: Farjana Islam)

Top 3 Reasons To Like Local In Lockdown:

1. The service remains as fabulous and private. Need a unique size? Different color? Want to understand if there are more to come back in? Your questions are answered by the business owner and the team who serve you every time you step into their shop. No call centers, no looking for trying to find hours to find a contact form – and no dodgy hold music.

2. Local shops are delivering locally curtail on miles. We all want to try more for the earth and selecting to buy in our local area may be a good way to form a little difference.

3. Keep your money in your local area. A thriving local economy is nice for all people – it creates jobs, opportunities, and better services. After you spend with a neighborhood business, chances are high that they’re paying the wages of another local person, spending in another local shop, and last but not the least keeping Kiel and the surrounding towns financially buoyant. 

Though currently in Kiel other famous brand shops are already open and people can visit the stores but periodically lockdown didn’t stop their business. They are still selling their products via the click & meet processes.

Anyone searching for an acceptable sales outlet in their area can browse the “Yellow Pages” on paper, ask friends or explore for them on the internet. On overview pages such as www.kiel-hilft-kiel.de or www.ploen-hilft-ploen.de, you can find numerous local and regional retailers under the keyword “Regional Shopping” that each customer can use for instance.