Coronavirus: Fish and chip shop’s new idea to keep serving customers

The Long John Hill Fish Bar is up for sale. Pic: Archant

Paul Slater, who owns the Long John Hill Fish Bar in Lakenham with his wife Victoria, is bringing in the “call to car” scheme, where customers can ring up for their food, pay by phone and have the food delivered to their car by a member of staff without having to come into contact with another person.

The business owner said the measures stem from recent government guidance and says the changes are his way of trying to continue to serve the community.

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Last month, the couple announced the long serving business would be up for sale.

Mr Slater said: “I was racking my brains and thinking to myself how can I keep my staff and customers safe.

“I do not want to put the fear of god in people, but these are the plans we have in place while we wait to see what the government does next.

“They call the shop, place their order and pay by card over the phone, they park in our car park and we bring the order out and place it on the roof. There is no contact for anybody. It’s just those in the shop and we clean and disinfect the shop every day.

“We may take it a stage further by closing the doors to the shop and having a table two metres away from the customer, put the order there and they can get it.

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“Fish and chip shops are part of the community for social interaction, people come in and have a chat with you, a little bit of banter. That’s part of the customer experience coming into the shop. Doing this people do not have to be in a contained space and we will keep to the plan until we get back to normal.

“It’s an ever evolving situation. I want to keep open and if we can do it in this way, maintaining customers and keeping everyone safe.”