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14
Mar 2020
Queues for hand-sanitiser and a mixed Saturday trading picture in Harrogate district
There was a mixed picture of Saturday trading across the district today as shoppers did come out in Ripon, Harrogate and Knaresborough. Some traders in Harrogate, though, said they had started to feel a negative effect from the coronavirus crisis and were deeply concerned for the coming weeks.
The manager of Cafe M in Harrogate town centre, Lee Woodmass, said footfall had halved. Lee took over the independently run cafe in February. "Things were going well until last week and then takings halved".
Shoppers, he said, have been asking where they can buy hand-sanitiser and his older customers are really worried.
The picture was less bleak elsewhere though in Harrogate with some stores saying it felt like a regular Saturday. Vicky Wild who runs the Harrogate Fair Trade Shop on Cambridge Street, said the week had been very quiet but today it had picked up.
Queues for hand-sanitiser
In Ripon a small queue formed outside the Boots store on Market Place before it opened at 08.30am today. Sales were limited to two bottles each and soon ran out. There have been similar queues outside pharmacies all over the district.
There has been real anxiety around finding a bottle and accompanying acts of altruism.
Amanda Macey, from Ripon, told The Stray Ferret:
That good deed was rewarded when Amanda, pictured above, who has contact with vulnerable people, did obtain her two bottles.
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