200 days ago, I switched off the drinks cabinet at the shop, cancelled all in-store play, furloughed the staff, locked the door and wondered when (or if) I’d be back.
I wrote at the time how weird it seems to remove the constant background hum of the drinks cooler. At the time, I figured it would be two, maybe three, possibly 4 weeks? 200 days later it is still silent. It has a new home, is basically empty – ‘sugar free’ drinks have a painfully short shelf-life – has been stripped down, pressure cleaned and reassembled, but there’s still no in-store gaming, so it doesn’t make any sense to have it wasting electricity.
Business-wise … we’re okay, still. Should probably do a more thorough analysis but it all trundles along well enough. The shop itself has never really closed. There was a period of 6-7 weeks when we couldn’t let anybody in, but we’ve been able to trade throughout. Both Rebecca & Marnie have returned from furlough. The latest pandemic developments have resulted in a conspicuous slow down since the beginning of October but everything seems basically fine as people adjust and readjust to LIFE 2020.
It’s clearly still not sensible to encourage people from separate households to sit around a table together for hours at a time, which rules out pretty much everything as far as in-store gaming goes. Instead, we carry on as normal, -ish, plan for the future and keep moving forwards, slowly, under the ever watchful hex-vision of Mr Flibble.
—Steven
Shop Open: 10-6pm, Monday to Sunday.
Clifton Road Games 