FREE Local Delivery Is Back

As the lockdown continues and the government continues to encourage everyone to stay at home as much as possible we have decided to do our bit to help. As of today we are re-introducing our FREE local delivery service for ALL customers.

We used to offer this service from our last premises but had to withdraw it following a spinal injury and subsequent serious illness that left me unable to lift anything (or even to stand at one point) and impeded my mobility. In order to enable us to bring the service back Billie will have to do the deliveries and that means we have to close the shop early each day to do it.

free local delivery

From today we have introduced new reduced opening hours to enable us to carry out deliveries (and supplier collections) in the afternoons. The new hours are as follows:-

Monday 13:00 – 1600

Tuesday 10:00 – 14:00

Wednesday 10:00 – 14:00

Thursday 10:00 – 14:00

Friday 10:00 – 14:00

Saturday 10:00 – 14:00

FREE local delivery will be available for ALL orders over £5 to the following postcodes:- GL1, GL2, GL3, GL4 GL50, GL51 (that’s Cheltenham and Gloucester). Please telephone your order to 01452 501882 before 14:00. If it is a stock item we will deliver that day or the next. If it is not something we usually stock (or is currently out of stock) we will deliver it when the order arrives at the shop. We will still be OPEN everyday to receive deliveries and for those customers who still wish to visit the shop. Please note that all orders for the FREE delivery must be placed by telephone and paid for by card at the time of ordering. We cannot do cash on delivery at this time.

If you give us your contact number we can call you just before we arrive then knock and leave the item on our doorstep for you to come out and retrieve it before we leave. Alternatively we can leave it in a previously agreed secure area at the customers risk. Everyone should be home (that’s kind of the point of doing this) so we will only attempt one delivery. If we cannot get a response we will return the item to the shop for collection by the customer. Of course click and collect is still available on our website and by telephone. This system has been working well up to this point.

We are already doing FREE delivery to the vulnerable members of our community and we have reduced the minimum order value for this service to £5 to make it even easier for them to shop. The shop early closing is just to carryout the large volume of deliveries we are getting and expect to see increase. We are very busy and cannot cope with the deliveries with the shop still open and needing staffing. Please note this delivery service is for essential items so we will not be delivering animals. We insist that customers come to the shop to view animals before purchasing anyway and have suspended most animal sales during the current crisis.

So for FREE local delivery call 01452 501882 before 14:00. If you call after 14:00 we will be out delivering so will have to call you back when we are in the shop, which won’t be until the next working day.

Sale of animals and accessories during the current situation.

I was asked a simple question today and realised that the answer was not as simple as it seemed. Are you selling animals at the moment? I have put out this message to explain our current position and the reasoning behind it.

The current legislation, for very obvious and humanitarian reasons, seeks to limit peoples movements and to keep people at home. This is not, as some people think to stop the virus spreading, it is to slow the rate of spread down and keep hospital numbers manageable. We clearly should not be doing anything as a community business to work against this effort. No one should be going out for any reason other than those listed as permissable by the government guidelines, such as to get to work, medical or care reasons, esssential supplies etc.

We obviously fit into essential supplies for most of our products. Pet foods are essential, pets have to eat. Bedding material, medical and water treatments, shampoos, brushes etc can also be considered essential, if not immediately within a few days. Animals will still defecate and urinate so you have to clean them out. Fish will still need water changes, animals still get minor ailments and infestations. I suspect self isolation would be a lot more unpleasant if your cat had fleas you could not treat. Groomers are closed and within a few weeks some breeds are going to become very matted (a welfare issue for the animal) and probably a bit stinky (a welfare issue for the owner!).

Other items are less clear. Is it really essential that you upgrade your budgie cage right now? Probably not. Will it cause any welfare issues to wait a few weeks until the restrictions are hopefully lifted? Probably not. Best to stay at home. Of course you may be coming to the shop anyway to buy bird seed and then, well you are not making an extra journey so that would be acceptable. Don’t use the food as an excuse though, we are all trying to be responsible at the moment. However if your cage breaks and the bird can no longer be secured then it is now essential. Not so simple is it?

gerbil

Animals seem more obvious but are they? Now is not the time to be leaving home to buy a new pet. In fact, under the current legislation it will possibly earn you a fine. So we are not selling animals for this reason at present. Please still contact us for advice on what you need and how to care for any animal we sell. Even reserve the animal if you wish but put off actually coming in to pick it up until after the restrictions are lifted. We will look after it for you at no charge.

tarantula

Sometimes however it is not so clear cut. I’ve long said that keeping spiders is habit forming, if not out and out addictive! If someone is in the shop buying livefood for their collection or substrate for repotting, or a larger enclosure etc, then spotting a spider in store that they have been waiting to get and buying it at the same time is not adding to the risk of spreading the virus at all and we would be willing to sell the animal under that circumstance. The journey was being made anyway.

pet shop Gloucester

The only other circumstance we are selling animals at the moment is where animal welfare is the main reason for purchase. Some animals are very social. Loss of a cage mate can cause serious depression and in extreme circumstances the premature death of the remaining pet. Rats are one obvious example of this but it can also be seen in rabbits, guinea pigs and other rodents, some birds and even some shoaling fish. If an animal is suffering and you need a cage mate to alleviate that suffering then yes we will sell you an animal for that reason. We would class that as essential although it is not us that has to explain to the nice police officer what you are doing out, although we would back you up if required.

So the general message is don’t go out unless you really need to for essential supplies and be honest with yourself about this. These meassures are not in place to protect you really. They are there to protect the vulnerable members of our society who unlike you won’t just get a bit of a cold but might actually die and also the staff still required to serve customers who need these essential supplies, namely me! So don’t be surprised if I am not my normal welcoming self if you turn up having decided that the worst public health crisis to face this country for at least a generation is the time you “really need” to buy some guinea pigs, a hutch and run, some food etc. because the kids are off school and need something to do.

giardia in ferrets

Well that turned into a little bit of a rant and it wasn’t supposed to. Most people are very reasonable and sensible, however in the retail trade you would be surprised at what we encounter!

Stay safe, be well and if you are thinking of getting a new pet, we’ll see you on the other side.

The Angell Pets Team

Update On Corona Virus Measures

Obviously the measures businesses are being asked to take by the government are being increased in a staged fashion in order to control the rate of infection within the population. Our pet shop is considered an essential business. Animals have to be fed. In order to allow us to stay open and to protect our staff, customers and business we are constantly updating our operating procedures so we are still there for you when you need us and also so we have stock on the shelves when you need it.

We have today introduced new protection measures to enable us to continue to be allowed to provide our services to you. I have listed all the current measures below to try and keep it simple and hopefully to convey why each step is important.

  • Opening times remain as normal. We are classed as an essential business.
  • Only one customer (or customer group) in store at a time. This obviously aids social distancing but also allows us to disinfect hard surfaces, card pin pads and hands in between customers.
  • We have a covered area in front of the shop, to protect customers from the elements should a small queue form. If this happens, please maintain at least a 2m distance from other customers, as per guidelines. We don’t think this will be an issue as our customers tend to come in in a fairly regular stream through the day but obviously with people off work this may change. Please be sensible and protect yourselves and others. If people do congregate police may disperse you or worse so if you see others outside the shop, stay in your car or away from the store until those people have been served and have left.
  • No members of the public who just wish to view the animals or just browse will be allowed in. We are open for our customers only to buy essential supplies.
  • Customers will be assisted to make their purchases as quickly as possible, whilst maintaining suitable distance. This keeps the risk of infection to a minimum and allows us to keep customers flowing.
  • We are encouraging customers to telephone orders in and pay by card over the phone, where possible. We can then have their orders ready for collection within minutes (unless pre-ordering is required, then we can give a date for collection).
  • For a select group of customers (those infected and having to self isolate, those with serious underlying health issues, such as chemotherapy treatment, or those over the age of 70) we can deliver locally for free. Please telephone your order in. Use the website to choose what you want by all means but telephone the order in (subject to a minimum order of £10). The website will charge for delivery. We ask those who are not in one of these categories not to abuse this service, as we are not set up to deliver to everyone.
  • Anyone who is infected or has been in close contact with someone who is infected please stay at home and use the service above. We will telephone you when we arrive with your delivery and leave it on the doorstep and wait until you have come out to collect it so it doesn’t “go missing”.
  • We have limited certain items to one or two per customer. This means that we can ensure the shelves remain full and our customers can get what they want, when they want it. Then there is no need to stock up.

By following the above procedure we can protect our customers, ourselves (if we get ill we will have to close) and our business. As long as we can demonstrate we are essential (and we are) and that we are taking all reasonable measures to limit the spread of the virus, we will be allowed to stay open. A lot of work is going on behind the scenes by our trade federations to make sure this situation continues. We hope that we can rely on our customers to be understanding. So far, we are pleased to say we have not had one single incident of a customer not being understanding or being rude to staff because of the sensible precautions we are taking so thank you very much for your continued support.

The Angell Pets Team

Corona Virus, Self Isolation And Stockpiling

We have noticed in the last couple of days that there has been an increase in sales to individual customers. Customers that usually buy one bag of dog food a month are buying two or three, customers that usually buy three boxes of locusts are getting six oir eight. Obviously this is so that if they are forced to self isolate in the event of them catching Corvid 19, they can be sure they have enough supplies in for their animals. Whilst this is understandable it has meant that some regular customers are finding that their normal supplies are not on the shelf when they need them and although it only takes us a few days to restock and we have no issues with any suppliers, it does lead to more people panickling that they are going to be without.

Pet shop Gloucester

In an attempt to both alleviate the need to “stock up” and to help out if any of our customers should actually need to self isolate (i.e. people that do have or are suspected to have the virus or vulnerable groups such as the elderly) we are introducing free home delivery for anyone who has had to go into quarantine. If you are genuinley having to self isolate and cannot get out to buy supplies, call us on 01452 501882. You can order and pay over the telephone (subject to a minimum order value of £10), we will then deliver to your house, give you a call to tell you we are there and leave the product at your door for you to collect when we have gone. No need for any contact.

Please note, this service is only for genuine cases of self isolation. We are a small family business and are not currently set up to do a full home delivery service at the moment due to my own on going health conditions. If you are not self isolating we have a large FREE carpark at our shop in Hucclecote. We just want to do our bit to help out those unable to make it to us because of the current Corona Virus situation and to reduce the impulse to bulk buy and spread the available supplies amongst all our customers. Thank you in advance for not abusing this service.

The Angell Pets Team