Support Local: The Chapel Allerton coffee shop and bakery adapting to stay afloat in Covid times

Nicola Newlove, who has run Crust and Crumb in Chapel Allerton for ten years, has made major changes to the way she operates her business to stay afloat during the pandemic.

An online shop at www.crustandcrumbleeds.co.uk goes live on Tuesday November 10 and Nicola has set up a drive through and a click and collect service at the Harrogate Road coffee shop.

Nicola spoke to the YEP as we step up our #supportlocal campaign once more to encourage you to use the virtual high streets of our local and independent traders when it comes to your Christmas shopping during the second national lockdown.

Although the shutters may be down on their bricks and mortar shops their online tills are still open.

Nicola said: "It has been a massive hurdle and we have had to adapt to keep going.

"The drive through is doing amazingly well. We have got such a good community in Chapel Allerton and a lot of very loyal customers who have ordered from us every week since March.

"Our customers choose to come to us because they want to support a good quality local independent. They get some good banter and they get looked after.

"When this latest lockdown is lifted we plan to go back to offering some sit in dining, but our focus for now will remain on take out."

The Big Conversation survey run by the YEP and our sister titles across JPIMedia revealed that 71 per cent of our readers agreed that “the Christmas period will be a good opportunity to support local businesses”.

Rather than use the big, all-consuming e-commerce platforms we are urging you to widen your searches further - it is too easy to complete your online shopping in one stop.

If you do our smaller local traders will miss out - despite offering a tantalising array of great ideas and local gifts. And these are the traders needing your help.

In the coming weeks, under our #supportlocal banner, we will be championing the trusted local traders you can support because they operate online stores, offer click-and-collect services or under lockdown rules still remain able to trade. We’ve already started our own list here which will be updated each day.

For many retailers, these past few months have been the most difficult they have faced which is why it’s never been more important to support our local shops.

Money spent locally is recycled locally, often paying for local suppliers, local people for their work and preserving local livelihoods. Every thriving community needs this local economy to prosper.

Mark Goldstone, head of policy at West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said: "As a Chamber we have always said that it is the independent retail and hospitality businesses that are the fingerprints of Leeds.

"They provide the unique and truly local flavour to our city centre, towns and district high streets which set us apart from other cities.

"There is no doubt that Covid has boosted online sales but as we head into the Christmas season I believe we must do all we can to ensure that when we finally get through the crisis that our independents are still with us and so we are right behind the YEP #supportlocal campaign."

Andrew Cooper, chief executive of LeedsBID (Business Improvement District) , said: "Covid has shown how innovative and creative our retail and hospitality venues in the city can be in these continuing challenging times.

"We are already seeing a good mix of businesses moving to click and collect, delivery services and on-line and we should support all these city centre traders at this time.

"Both through the #supportlocal campaign and the welcomebacktoleeds.co.uk website, we encourage Leeds residents to continue to support their city centre high street.

"We are working together with retailers in the city centre to continue to plan for Christmas, hoping that from December 2 2020, we can still make the city sparkle for the festive season and welcome people back to shop safely at this essential time for businesses.”