https://youtu.be/_iZLSRL96z0: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

https://youtu.be/_iZLSRL96z0: this _iZLSRL96z0 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Hello and welcome back to business as unusual. I hope you all had a lovely weekend and I hope your family are still safe. And well, my name is Megan from greater London properties. For those new people that are tuning in there, just to let you know a little bit background as to where we why we're doing these things on what we are doing. And so greater London properties. Set up a Facebook group called Central London's, lockdown support group.

This group is mainly to give businesses Charities and organizations a platform to let every local resident. Know what they're up to, whether they're open, whether they're close and still generating Revenue. We want to hear about it. So, make sure you post on the pavement on the Facebook wall and this is now our third week of live chats meeting the people behind the businesses. This is our 11:30, every single weekday, and we've just really enjoyed doing this to create create

A little bit of content on how people are doing at the moment, how they're coping, what they're doing. So today we're speaking with our neighbors of the Soho office Central London's food and wine. And we're speaking to the Joint owners, Chad and Oliver. Hi Dad – Hi Megan thanks for joining us today. Just for the people that don't know you you are based on 43, broadwick Street.

You have a lot of customers that are that are very, very regulars, but tell us a little bit more about how you got started up. Well, it's all started with the working for Carphone Warehouse, for 10 to 12 years in retail. And I just had a hope one day I need to have my own store and with that view in mind, I just stumbled upon internet on one of

The stores and believe it or not, I bought this business online and in 2013 and I turned it around and things things, improved gradually and then I had come across a guy called Oliver. Who's now, my business partner used to be my customer. I used to visit my still regularly, we met up over a drink and then he opened up to me and he said, you know what, I think I can invoke. I was about to,

Prove myself, sell the business on move on. That was my whole idea but he's like, no, you're not going anywhere. I was like, why not? We goes because you're the local community guy. You can't just leave and go. I was like ball and just because you see you. Oh, yes. And there was, I mean now ran successfully store of course, things are tough right now because of covid-19, but let me assure all my customers have been coming to my class regularly that we are still

We still open 9/11 every single day. We still keeping our prices down and we making sure we get everything, what our customers want. And now I'm going to pass over to Ali and obviously he's going to talk about yourself. Yeah, I think guys like I can put a little bit more spice into the story. Like I was, I'm actually I was I was living nearby herod's back in the days and I was I was actually

We as like it was time to move on a lift that for 12 years, I thought I want to move somewhere where where there's where's Lively touristy, maybe even. And so I checked out so and I tried a lot of companies, a lot of estate agents and I said it to you again before I you guys are great, you have a fantastic service spot on and I got this, lovely flat, I'm sitting in from you. This is actually the reason why I came here to, so I live on carnaby street and there are three things I was still.

Working in Germany for Monday to Friday. So, whenever I came back on a Friday night, I was looking for the one place to get my proper beer, I'm German. I need my beer before I go to bed. So his shop was the closest and I started buying from there and the thing is of course, you can go to supermarket but it's long ways. You have to rush through the AL for you to products and then you have a grumpy person, the other counter and usually you happy in a convenience store, you have a crown, the Indian behind the counter and it was different. He was nice. He was smiling was

Like what's wrong with this guy? I know, it's like it just kept on, you know, you need three things in your life. You need the dentist can be the hairdresser at you need a convenience store and I just got comfortable. I felt like I was welcomed. Every time I was there and he kept the things I like in his mind and he was offering me new products. And when I got used to the new products and I wanted them again, he said, I checked them out and I said, what? Why did you said yeah, check the software. It doesn't give me the margin and I was like this.

Guys crazy. So and then we became friends and I understood that all the software technology how he managed the store was actually coming from his former experience from with come from warehouse and it was deeply impressed. So, and we became friends, we started going out. And I remember one night when, you know, I'm an investor in digital and I talk about apps all day and taking over the world with digital and that kind of stuff. And then I said to chat in the pub, with three points. Why don't you have a nap? Why don't you

You deliver to the desk, somebody wants a box of cigarettes deliver it to the desk, and he just said, as Indian as he is, very calm. But put you actually where your mouth is and then we kept on drinking and I remember it was, I was in my flat. Again, the next morning, my mom called me. She asked how I am. And I was like, I think I just bought 50 percent of a convenience store and this is how we started.

Against or state to school as it. So is there an app now or is it in progress? We have a sharper blade since

Yes. Yeah. I think it's called Instant Karma dot shop. So it's already. The the thing is live and we're just going to do the test run on it and then we will be able to deliver to everybody around us in time. Yeah, Mariah, check it out now but don't place an order. Do that or Wednesday. Yeah, but the service is life. We did that for you in order to have it in place and to

The college could use its called Instant Karma. Dot Chop Chop? Yeah, I'm just writing that down now and because we can also what I'll also do then is unless you guys want to do is post again on the Facebook on Wednesday and will do it as well. Just to kind of remind everybody that it's available from that day, that's so exciting about testing. Thank you. How are you finding any moment? Be by staying open. Chad, so you've got social distancing W book after kind of wait, outside of someone else's in the sugar.

Yeah, we have put the signage on the door as well. Support local. And we also got signage saying to 2 meter distance, social distancing apart and I think people are already following you, because they realize the shop is small. So, if somebody is coming in and it see, somebody's inside, they patiently, wait outside till the other person leaves and they come in. And for the, for our team, we've already got masks, we got everything.

Spent iser gels and everything to make sure that they are keeping safe as well. You are a real local community guys well, aren't you? Because she also like to support the homeless where you can and I know that you know you get involved with like all of the elderly making sure that they're okay and you're always really nice to us as well and get to know as we are trying to deliver the you know, the essentials to the local local people who can't come to the store.

And some of them have given my business card out who as well. And I said, look, guys, you're struggling. That's my phone number. Just give me a shout. Whatever. I have in the store will make a contacts contact. Free delivery outside your door. Will knock will leave the stuff outside for you. We can do it that way. Yeah, yeah. So it's like we have a special situation here that we never had before. Like if you see the homeless, I mean we all used to them and they have that turfs right? You know, the red-haired guy who always sits in front of the of the of your shop.

On Broadway Street, always reading cooked. I gave him my pants and shoes, and that kind of, he's always very kind. That's a good thing. Is that the homeless people are meeting now? They're dehydrated because they can't get water. You know, usually you can go to a public place and have something from the sink or something, but we really have to give them like the essentials like bottle of water, wherever we see them.

That's really important message to put out there because I have no idea. Yeah, that's so mean because they think that knowledge is power with these things. If you don't know then you just treat and exactly as they haven't you. But there are regular products but they're not public toilets. There's nothing everything's closed.

I'm not sad. Yeah, it's always like that's a bit but we can help as local. So whenever we see them we give them the essentials. Like usually, you wouldn't give them a bottle of water but gives them a bottle of water a day 1.5 liters and they're, well, of least have something to drink. We give them sandwiches, and whatever they need. And I think we all as an immunity happy to help.

That's really good. Chad what you find in people are people still book buying or they would leave already got measures in place. So there was an incident that this customer wanted to come in and buy all of the sugar that had installed but I had to restrict him to just buy one one packet 1 kilo packet per person and he said, why can I not buy the whole thing? I said we'll have to look after my other.

You know, other people as well, come in regularly to buy stuff from me, especially people across the road from us in a big building. They rely on me. So I said, sorry, I can only serve you one at a time. So we have got those things in place and they are helping job is the make sure that everybody else gets what they want as well when they come in.

That's good to hear. And we've got two, people have commented. Maureen has said, ha, ha, ha, Oliver. I feel you, I'm French. And I need wine before going to bed. So, how is the best for kind of fusion? True? Oh, you're the product guy. Welcome anytime I've got nice fresh wind as well. Please Papa, who is stopped up on your mind? And then and then Sarah has said, this is amazing news about the app. Well,

And I've always had brilliant and friendly service from you and your team. So thank you. Thank you ever so much. Thank you so much for this and then someone gets put in. There is a water supply and kingly court. If they need, if they have a bottle, there is a fountain. But I'm not sure if we could get approved and I didn't, they gate still open chat D. They keep, I mean, the sometimes they open, sometimes they're close but I think mostly they're open. But depending on what they're doing a deep clean or

Nothing, then they're shutting it. But other than that, I think they opened. This is the message to everyone out there. If you're if you're not having any water and you're having problems finding anything just pop pop to our store and you know, come and see us and we'll do what we can to help you. Yeah, it's a really nice message and also I just want to ask because obviously I'm I'm not in. So right now I want to ask you to what is it like because obviously Oliver you're still in the flat now and you read it online.

What is it like at the moment? Is it?

Obviously, quite a lot of, if you want to have a picnic or a candlelight dinner, you can do that on Congress Street right now. It's like, there's nobody, there's like four weeks. I'm taking pictures, which is it is. I mean, it is very dramatic, but it's kind of an excitement to if you walk through one of the biggest cities in Europe, or the biggest city in Europe, and the streets are empty, and I took the car and I enjoy driving through London streets, of course, and enjoyed that, there was no traffic.

Never that kind of stuff, but it wears off so badly. It's like, you always think they're too many people around here and now you're missing the people the interaction watching them. See life going to the coffee store. There's this lovely coffee store. What is it called? The Institute of coffee? I don't know, something like this. I'm missing all places a mission. Yes, I'm missing those people and yeah it is it is totally empty here and I'm feeling terrible for the people who are not working at the moment for the shop owners who are not

Making in revenues for you guys. It's like it's hard to show Flats at the moment that kind of stuff. So I want us going back to life but in the safest way possible and yeah, we took the measurements in order to do that. Yeah. I'm really excited about is absolutely. You gonna have so, what's the radius for this? Is it maybe just sent from London. We say it's W1, we got you covered. But the thing is, what it's like. This is the first time we speak about that, actually, what we're doing is we're printing Flyers.

We put them in post boxes and we start with the first five streets, north, south east west, and see what the response is. And if people like it and we want to do it walking distance first, but we are also working on a second store, maybe on doubly Street, maybe on Berwick Street, we don't know yet and then we want to add catchment zones and want to grow bigger and bigger. But if somebody's in needs, we go. As far as the takes in order to deliver something that you

That's pretty much an Innovative idea. Thank you so much. It's I think Oliver is the man. I would give credit for because he's from the tech field. I'm good at the retail but I think he's good with the technical side of things. So he's I think he's got the name as well which is Instant Karma which is I think brilliant name. And I think the whole idea is to provide instant gratification

Everything with you is actually everything is, well, balanced. I know nothing about retail, you know, I'm a digital. Usually, we do like apps and that kind of stuff. So this is where I was able to contribute and Chad, said it very clearly in the beginning. When we spoke about it, I have nothing to do with that. It's like, so put your actual office and, and we did. And actually, it's a comma, is a combination of two words because you said karma is a very important thing to you being kind, because then you get kindness back because it works the other way too. If you

Grumpy you get grumpiness back and I just added the word instant to it and then we had a nice John Lennon song. We were all singing like really all right now and we had a name and this is actually what we want to insert a comma stands for instance kindness instant service, instant quality.

That's brilliant. Well done guys. Yes, Josh, you are a big part of it because people know about your shop meaning because of you and your customer service. Yeah. You you often find that you don't return to yours return to the shop that you've got the best service. Even if it's closer, I will return to a shot where someone's going to be had always going support. The person that's been the nicest kiss. You do realize that these convenience shots, they are independent businesses. It's not a huge corporate. It is the person that's behind till usually. So

You want that person to be to be there every day for you and that's what you are before we became Partners. Sorry. I always said you're the extended living room. You're my extend, the living room like, please don't, but I think my key is that if you treat every customer that way you would treat a friend or a family, if they walk into your soul, they will always come back to you. Yes, you will always get somebody's not in a good mood, but if they come in a bad mood. But you

You just give them a smile and make eye contact and say hello. How are you? That makes all that difference and I strongly believe in that. Yeah.

That's great. What are people that what people buy in the most moment? Is it just like Essentials? I will go ahead and find the eggs are running. You sure. Sorry. And I actually got ample supplies of everything in this store because I have a next-day delivery from a local Dairy that comes from London berries. They have been delivering for last 20 years to this shop and have not changed them for a day, any day.

And the prices of not changed a single penny as well. But even though I'm getting slightly expensive, I think in times like this, we should keep it as nominal as possible for everyone, people are buying more of, I think confessionary items biscuits, because when people are home, they're making lots of cups of coffee. So, I think they're love biscuits. Getting on market cleaning supplies. I think people have already bought it, they've stocked up on it but there every now and then we get few people asking for it but then now no that's that's pretty much it.

Yeah just really interesting to me because I know that we're aware I am at the moment under the eggs. The chicken oh you'll get it all. Thank you so much for joining us here today guys. I really enjoyed this chair. Thank you, thank you so much and it's so beautiful. Thank you so much for this. Well, you're very welcome.

During your platform has Oliver, it's the best place to great. Thanks a lot. And yeah, that's what I'm saying, just as a final mention. So they're 143 broadrick Street. They are open. As Chad said, from 9:00 to 11:00. It's Monday to Friday. Yeah, Monday to Friday, 8 9 10 11 and they have a new app coming out on Wednesday, called Instant Karma.

. Shop and some will repost that on Wednesday, just so that everybody can kind of have a quick look and jump on board with that because I'm really excited. Very good idea. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much guys tomorrow. We're going to be speaking to Cloud Nine Cycles from store streets, and make sure you tune in for that one. And but yes, please make sure you visit their storm. My point in the right one. Thank you so much everybody. Thank you so much.