Smiles all round as Maree (left) and John Torrie (right) and their team welcome customers back to Village Butchery.
By Shauni James
A Katikati butcher has been enjoying welcoming its "family" back, and encourages locals to play their part in supporting local businesses.
Village Butchery Katikati owner John Torrie says people seem to be pleased to be back out, coming back into Katikati's little shops and, "getting all of their treats".
He says it has been great welcoming customers back into the shop under alert level 2.
"They are like family, you don't see them for a while and want to catch up and have a natter.
"I've got all my staff back and we are just happy to be back at work and enjoying interacting with people again."
He says people buying local was going to keep all the local businesses here.
"With the times we've just gone through, if we don't join together as one some people are going to fall over.
"I think a lot of the little businesses around here are going that extra step to help everyone that needs it.
"Let's just hope we only have to go through this once. We've all got to play our part and do everything we can."
John says during level 3 they had home delivery and delivered to a lot of people unable to go out.
He says the biggest hassle they had was getting the word out about how they were operating under level 3.
They were using Facebook which a lot of their elderly customers didn't have access to, he says.
John says there are still protocols to follow in level 2 and that it was important to keep these standards up right through to level 1.
It is also important to be kind and happy towards each other during this time, he says.
Western Bay of Plenty District could have fewer councillors to vote for next election.