Silence to pandemonium for Katikati hardware store

The Katikati Hammer Hardware team, (from left) Noel Bradly, Peter Renwick (owner), Lisa Counsel and Lynley Johansen, are pleased to be open again.

Everything stopped. It was so quiet you could hear the birds singing, said Peter Renwick, owner/operator of Katikati Hammer Hardware.

Like all of New Zealand, Renwick's store in Main Road Katikati went into lockdown during Covid-19. While this meant everyone had to stay at home during alert level 4, after two weeks Renwick had to go to the shop to water plants and turn the paints in the machine so they would not dry up.

"It was really weird driving into Katikati in the van. The road was so quiet and inside the shop was silent."

The shop was closed for five weeks. During lockdown Renwick kept in touch with the staff of four and all got paid the Government subsidy, which he topped up. During level 4 one person knocked on the door. A staff member doing urgent administration work told them the shop was closed. Renwick said he rang them to say, "We're in lockdown, you can't buy anything."

Stock sold prior to lockdown had to be replenished, so in level 3 Renwick dealt with reordering.

"I couldn't anticipate level 3 — it was pandemonium. People didn't understand that they couldn't come into the shop."

In level 3 customers could phone in orders and the staff would put them together. They queued outside to collect and had to keep their 2m distance.

"We had arrows directing people where to stand in the queue. Some chose to queue from the front door towards the road. People keeping their distance was difficult to police."

Renwick said moving into level 2 was their busiest time. "Customers were pleased to see the shop open. Some couldn't understand why we were closed when other shops were allowed to open."

Vegetable and flower seedlings were low on supply.

Most shoppers were eager to buy garden stuff and seedlings. Renwick said stocks from the people growing the seedlings were depleted and couldn't keep up and are still low on supply.

"Even flower seedlings are in short supply but improving by the day."

There had been no difference for the store between alert levels 1 and 2.

Overall, Renwick says the only impact he noticed Covid has had on Katikati as a town is that people are shopping more locally.

"I hope to bumble our way through without too many drops in sales. And if people holiday in New Zealand and help the tourist sector, more and more people will move around the country."