The best of the worst

Dealing with a pandemic and the fear that comes with one is not something we ever thought we'd have to cope with at Newsstand. The last few weeks have been surreal for everyone and we don't expect these twists and turns to stop anytime soon. We're still open and sending out your magazines to this point so, so far so good.

We are extremely aware of the fact that our services are pretty low down on the order of importance - and with that we must offer our utmost thanks and support to those battling this virus and helping those who are suffering from or because of it. Having said that, we do hope that we can keep ensuring that our little paper bundles of joy reach you all - especially those who are stuck at home, as relaxation and inspiration must be truly useful offerings at this time and if nothing else, we've plentiful access to these.

What is really interesting is how we come out of this depression and what changes it will have on us going forwards. I'd like to think we can channel the "best of the 1970s" and try to hang on to some of it once this storm has passed through.

For example, there are big upsides for the environment; with fewer pointless car journeys into town, the food saving refusal to bin those outer cabbage leaves and the reduction in the general consumption of unnecessary goods. We've seen the images of air quality improvement all over the world and under flight paths the lack of contrails has even improved the light.

In business, the winners and losers seem to stare across the fence of sustainability; travel services are decimated, staying at home is lauded. Supermarket sales may be high, but normality and plentiful stock is to be found at the local markets. Home working saves travel as well as ecological and financial overheads.

Home life is challenging yet fascinating. Time management and priorities evolve and although a return to external socialising will be welcomed with open arms, its the conversations with family that provide novel insight. Community spirit is most certainly alive and well. Keeping busy is essential but you might even start to notice the calories consumed vs burnt by your body as one eye is kept on the dwindling food cupboard - is this energy conservation in its purest form?

Some of these points are fanciful and pay little attention to an economy adversely affecting many good, hard working folk, nor to the casualties of the virus itself. Like us, I suspect you are saturated with these thoughts and we wanted to combat that by sending small, positive snippets to our wonderful customers.

And then it occurred to us, that is exactly our business...

Stay positive and look after yourselves x