After a few not very nice comments accusing us of being greedy and unfair, we feel we have to respond and explain the situation in more detail.
As you all know we are a small family business that was all set up for a normal Spring/Summer season until the whole world suddenly changed. Over the last ten days we have had to adjust way above our comfort levels and are working on a trial and error basis, whilst trying our hardest to get plants to as many of our loyal customers as possible. Please be assured that we will be changing some of the post codes each week to increase our delivery reach.
The truth of the matter is that with the three vans we have in constant use we can only deliver a quarter of our usual produce, which may not be enough to survive. So our idea of £100 minimum orders (which we know is quite high) was to encourage local friends and neighbours to create joint orders in order to reach this total but also allowing us to have fewer drop offs. In turn this will allow us to deliver to more customers. We are trying our best but need your help as well.
As you will see from our online store we have kept all our prices the same, which makes it even more difficult when adding extra labour costs of picking out the orders and delivery costs on what are already very small margins, which is why we have to charge £10 for delivery (other online plant suppliers have already have a far greater markup to begin with).
Our first choice of selling was to provide a click and collect service from the Nursery however after seeking government advice we quickly found out that there was no chance of this option. However we will keep our eyes and ears open to see if this could be a possibility in a few weeks time - this would definitely ease the pressure, but we also want to keep the family and our customers safe.
Unfortunately when extreme situations like COVID-19 happen we all have to adjust our lives on the spur of the moment, some decisions are good and some not so good but we honestly feel our latest decisions are going to keep the majority of our loyal customers happy. As our Grandad taught us "life is not a rehearsal". You have to do what you think is right at the time!
Number one in all this though is that everyone stays safe, well and hopefully some of our plants and hanging baskets can put a little smile on your face during this period .
Lots of love,
The Davies Family
P.S We forgot to add HP10 and SL8 to our previous e-mail, it had been a long day! Please see below.
SL6, HP10 and SL8 can place orders between:
Friday 3rd April 12pm and Monday 6th April 12pm
HP9, HP13 and SL9 can place orders between:
Monday 6th April 1pm and Wednesday 8th April 12pm
SL1 and SL2 can place orders between:
Wednesday 8th April at 1pm and Friday 10th April 12pm
We plan to start with this and see how we get on and hope to add more post codes in the coming weeks. Please note the online store will only allow these post codes to order on their allocated days at the moment.
In order to make the online delivery operation viable and sustainable a £100 minimum order value has also been added, plus a £10 surcharge. We are able to offer free delivery on orders over £250. Our aim is to deliver your order within seven days.
Our online shop
https://davies-brothers-nursery-ltd.myshopify.com/passwordOur mailing address is:
Davies Brothers Nursery
Chalk Pit Lane
Burnham, Buckinghamshire SL1 8NE
Tel: 01628 666439
