Stokesley high street businesses praise customer loyalty during Covid

A weekly market and a monthly Farmers’ Market bring more people into the town, but the arrival of Covid and government restrictions meant that small local businesses had to find a way through it to survive.

D A Grainge is a family fruit and veg business on the high street, run by Janis and Dave Bushby. The business has been going since 1939. “The footfall in the town slowed down,” said Janis. “And a lot of the older generation didn’t want to come out. Everything was new for us, insisting on masks and only allowing two people in the shop at a time. We didn’t have a card machine either so had to invest in one.

“We started a home delivery service and were rushed off our feet. Son John does the deliveries and our daughter and granddaughters work in the shop. We are so grateful to our customers for their help and support.”

A few doors away is another fruit and veg store, Macmahons, where the loyalty of customers is also praised, as the footfall in the town has decreased. “Based on customer feedback, we have continued with a counter service rather than a pre-Covid self service,” said Hayley Macmahon. “We also deliver, with fresh produce coming from Leeds market each day.”

Nigel Davison, the market manager for both markets, said that 2020 had been the toughest year in 20 years of running them.

“Like most businesses, the farmers’ markets have faced incredible challenges,” he said. “At the time, nobody knew what we were dealing with. With support from the town council we reopened in June, with a raft of Covid measures in place to keep everyone safe. Many of our local producers rely on the markets to stay afloat, and without the markets many of them would have gone to the wall, a situation which would have decimated the local food network.”

The return of the markets offered a lifeline to the many small independent food and drink producers who trade at them.