Second lockdown forces Southall retailer to sell c-store

As the second lockdown is set to sweep across England, Ajmeet Singh, part owner of convenience store Southall News on Southall Broadway, is a worried man despite being able to stay open.

And he’s decided after 10 years in the retail business, lockdown has been the “cherry on top” to decide to sell the store and change his career.

“I’m going to try and sell my business, going to refurbish it a bit then put it on the market,” Singh said. “I will do anything [but] not retail.”

He knows shoppers prefer to go to big “superstores” where prices can be lower, and he’s stopped paying for the credit card terminal as he can’t afford the charges after finding transactions are down 60 per cent compared to last year.

“We had losses in the last lockdown and we will suffer losses again now, it will take us time to rebuild,” he said.

Recalling the March lockdown, the 32-year-old said: “I’ve never seen Southall like it, it was really creepy for me to drive down in the morning and see everything shut down.

“Southall used to be open every single time, bank holidays, no matter what the occasion, it just seems unreal to be honest.

“Southall is hit hard because Southall properly relies on marriage seasons and wedding parties, banqueting. There is a lot of tourism that comes here because of that reason…It’s all halted, it has been affected, and now all those shops will be closed.”

The business was able to receive a government grant the first time round, which covered rent and bills “to keep the landlord happy”, but Singh said this time isn’t looking as good.

“Even now I had a look yesterday at the grants for now, it is about £1,300 a month, it’s not sufficient enough. It’s lower than last time,” he added.

“We are not better off this time, people are more cautious around this time because of previous experience they know what to do now. People stop buying extra stuff.”

In his final days of freedom he was planning one last goodbye visit to his parents in Northolt, before staying in his household bubble with his wife and son.

The young family is “99.9 per cent” confident that if their son gets coronavirus from school they could pull through, and are building up their health with immune system tablets, Vitamin C, ginger juices and believe their Indian diet will keep them strong.

Singh’s optimism however doesn’t extend to how well this second lockdown will go, and he is worried the virus could spiral four or five times higher than the last peak.

“It’s gone out of hand, it will not recover like this, a month-long it is not enough for it [coronavirus] to go down, especially because of winter because of colds, coughs and together with that,” he said.

“I really hope it doesn’t get to that level, [but] I feel the worst is about to come.”

(Reporting by Anahita Hossein-Pour of the Local Democracy Reporting Service)