One of the most pernicious aspects of this virus is the way it affects people so differently. We may be “all in it together” but the outcomes vary so much.
I’m not just talking on a personal health level (the tragic randomness of which is clear to all), but the way it affects work sectors so differently as well. Food and drink has been particularly badly hit and I once again pay tribute to the many of you who have remained so positive and professional in the face of such adversity.
Yet even with food and drink there are clearly winners too, those who by a pure stroke of chance find their business has fallen on the right side of Covid-19’s knife edge. Pretty much anyone with a delivery-based business model, for example – the online butchers and wine merchants who have stepped into the gap left by a nation chary of visiting physical shops – and also those who cater to our new-found leisure time.
Is there any household not now baking bread and cakes? Flour mills are at full capacity and still can’t keep up with demand.
From a professional point of view, that brings its own problems. I haven’t seen flour in the shops for a month now. We are still testing recipes, we are still doing limited food shoots but the lack of availability has only added to the complexity.
So I was impressed (and delighted) to be offered a delivery from Carr’s Flour. Their PR, Nudge, saw a chance to help out (and, let’s be honest, to gain some good will for themselves and their client).
Well, it worked. Another way of turning a negative into a positive.