Store re-opening date confirmed

It has been a long time but we are finally getting ready to re-open our Whitley Bay store after over three months of being closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

We will be re-opening on Saturday 27 June at 10am to 4pm.

Our normal store hours will resume thereafter on Tuesday but please bear in mind that there may be times when, due to public transport, we might not be there in time. We will try and update any delays via our social media pages.

"Wish" orders will also resume from that date but we expect it may take some time for things to get back to normal.

We have introduced several new measures in store to comply with government guidelines:

• Only 3 people/households in store at any one time

• Hand sanitiser available for use

• Fitting room will be temporarily closed but this will be reviewed

• Screen guard at the counter to protect you and our staff

• Regular cleaning in operation especially at 'touch points'

• Card payments ONLY. No cash will be accepted for the time being

• Any returned items will be isolated for 72 hours

• We may ask you to pack your own order to reduce contact

Please be patient if you visit. This is new to us too and we will try our very best to make your shopping experience a good one. If the shop is busy you will be asked to wait outside until someone leaves. If you have any feedback, please tell us rather than tell others.

We are continuing to offer free local delivery and are also planning some evening shopping events in store too - stand by for more information coming soon.

Something important to mention is that North Tyneside Council are planning to make changes to Park View to allow for safer social distancing whilst shoppers are in the street. This includes closing the road to normal traffic and widening the pavements and walking areas. We know that car parking isn't great anyway on Park View but please plan your journey in advance if you're coming to visit. We recommend you park at the Playhouse car park and just walk up to Park View from there which will take you 2 minutes. It isn't an ideal situation but please don't let these restrictions put you off - everyone is still here and waiting to welcome you back.

Thank you once again to everyone who has supported us during this time. It has been strange. But we can't wait to be back and seeing you in store again.

Coming out of lockdown

The UK Government has recently announced a tentative date of 15 June 2020 as the time when all non-essential retail stores can start to re-open. This of course is subject to change, depending on what happens between now and then.

We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis and will be taking a cautious approach to re-opening our Whitley Bay store.

As much as we miss being on the high street greatly, we need to ensure the safety of our staff and customers and so it is looking likely that we will introduce a phased opening of the shop again from early July. We hope you can understand why we are doing this, and that you will continue to support us as normal.

Coming out of lockdown for a business is a very important element of re-starting the UK economy and we are going to be implementing various measures in line with official guidelines. These include social distancing, a maximum number of people in the store at any time, a temporary closure of our fitting room, hand sanitiser facilities and regular cleaning schedules within the shop. We will also need to slightly change the way that we serve you in store and this means we will only be taking card payments, as well as some other subtle differences which we will let you know of in due course.

Our opening hours are going to be slightly different too, as the country gets back in the habit of shopping again.

Please note that for the time being 'Wish' orders and collections will continue to be suspended - this will change and we'll of course keep you posted. This does not affect any orders placed on our own website.

We will regularly post updates on our website and social media pages so please keep checking back for the latest.

THANK YOU to everyone who has been shopping local via our online store. Your support has been amazing through all of this and your loyalty means a lot to us. Hopefully it won't be long before we see you all face to face (although hugs will have to wait sadly).

We're back for online shopping - important updates

Thanks for bearing with us during the current situation which has changed normal life as we know it. At the present time we are unsure when our Whitley Bay store will re-open, but it definitely will when safe to do so. However we are pleased to advise that our website is back for online shopping.

We have updated the site recently to ensure that the majority of our stock is listed. Stock levels are in real-time but there may be occasions when they are not 100% accurate so our apologies in advance if this happens.

Our delivery options have also been updated to reflect what is happening. We are offering you a few options when it comes to delivery and these have been chosen as what we believe are the safest and most sensible methods.

Postage and Delivery

• Royal Mail 1st Class

• Royal Mail 2nd Class

• Free local delivery to selected postcode areas on set days

Please note that Royal Mail are currently NOT delivering on a weekend and you should also allow a bit longer than normal for deliveries to arrive in general. At the current time we are not able to offer free postage via Royal Mail. As an independent business, we can't absorb postage costs for the time being - times are tough and our profit margins are very low... we hope you understand.

If you live locally, within the NE25 to NE30 postcode areas, we are offering free social distanced delivery to your doorstep. This will be done on either a Monday evening (6pm to 8pm), Thursday evening (6pm to 8pm) or Sunday daytime (11am to 7pm).

We will be personally delivering any items using this service. Please ensure that you only choose this option if you live within the selected postcode areas and that it is safe for us to do so. We will need to leave your order on your doorstep (we will send you a message when we are on the way and will ring the door bell to let you know your delivery is there before we leave your property). If you live somewhere which has no on-street parking close by, or if it is difficult to access your property (e.g. apartment/high rise flats) please contact us in advance of placing your order. We need to make sure that our staff are protected at all times.

As soon as the order has been left at your delivery address, we can no longer be responsible for it. Again, this is something which we have no control of at the moment.

We are not able to offer store collections at this time.

Payment

Payment for all orders placed online can be made via either credit or debit card. PayPal is also available.

Gift Vouchers

Our own gift vouchers are still available to purchase. These can be accessed from here and we'll place a link on the home page too.

To pay for your order using a gift voucher, you will need to enter the voucher code during the checkout process. Please let us know if you need assistance with this.

At the current time, we are unable to accept the 'Whitley Bay Gift Vouchers' for payment on our website. We are sorry about this, but we understand that these gift vouchers are going to have their expiry dates extended to account for the current situation. Please contact Whitley Bay Chamber of Trade with any queries regarding Whitley Bay Gift Vouchers.

Returns and Refunds

This is a tricky one. As our physical store is closed, it is difficult for us to easily accept returns of items bought. Your rights as a consumer are protected by law and we have extended our returns period to 90 days from the date of purchase which we hope will help. We are also hoping that our Whitley Bay store will be open again within that time - please hold on to your items if you think you might need to return something. We are continually monitoring the situation. Contact us with any return queries and we will do our best to come up with a solution.

"Wish" pickups

Unfortunately we are still unable to participate in the Wish scheme for the time being. This is because our retail store is closed and we can't accept any delivery of orders. Wish have temporarily removed us as a pick up point until we can open again.

If you have an order which you know is ready for pickup, we recommend that you contact Wish customer services via the Wish shopping app. They will be able to arrange a full refund back to your account. They may have done this already so please check your order status.

As this is something which was very unexpected, it has taken Wish some time to update their procedures and it is likely that there will be severe disruption with this service for considerable time ahead.

For data protection reasons all Wish deliveries to our store do not show the customer name so we don't know what items we have awaiting collection. All parcels are coded and the code is revealed to us when you are in our store with your Wish app open. So as a result of this we aren't able to check for you unfortunately.

For all queries regarding Wish, please contact them directly.

Thank you

Thanks to everyone who has supported us during this time. Whether it is a simple like or share of our posts on social media, leaving a review on Google or sending us your artwork for our shop windows - we really appreciate it.

It is hard to know what life will be like in the coming months, but we do hope that you will continue to shop local as our high streets will need you more than ever.

Please continue to check in on this page as we will update it as and when things change.

Stay safe and look after each other.