A shoe store is celebrating 15 years of business in Portishead High Street.
SoleLution, in High Street, reopened in June and was ‘incredibly busy’ in its peak trading season during the back-to-school period.
Owner Tanya Marriott said the community has supported SoleLution ‘fantastically’ throughout the pandemic, and to shop local supports the shop’s staff, Portishead community and local economy.
She said: “I cannot fault our customers’ support and we have done everything we can to make people feel comfortable in store.
“We launched our door stop fittings in lockdown as well as the appointment system for children before their return to school, which has had a phenomenal response.
“Shopping local supports staff, the community and gives a boost to the local economy. Sharing a good experience with friends and family on social media also helps massively to support us.”
To mark SoleLution’s 15th anniversary, two customers presented a cake to Tanya as a thank you for years of great customer service in Portishead High Street.
The colourful creation, designed with a bright blue shoe on the top and the shop’s logo on the side, was made by customers Sam Cox and Vicki John, who run Heaven On The Hill café on Avon Way.
Sam said: “SoleLution is an asset to the Portishead community, not just because of the standard of products and customer service but also the charitable work the shop does for local organisations and a charity overseas. Tanya puts her heart and soul in to the business and we wanted mark her 15 year anniversary with something. A cake seemed to be the ideal gift as in addition to running the cafe we specialise in celebration cakes.”
Vicki added: “We wanted to mark this special occasion for SoleLution as, although Portishead independent traders have always been supportive of each other now, with the pandemic and the difficulties it has brought with it, we are all working actively working hard to support each other wherever we can.”
Tanya said she is over the moon that two customers and fellow traders took the time and trouble to make the cake and looks forward to sharing it with her team.
SoleLution reopened today (Monday) after undergoing a deep clean following one of its staff members testing positive for coronavirus.
The business went ‘above and beyond’ Government and Public Health England guidelines to protect people from the virus and temporarily closed its doors to the public last week.
Tanya said: “We are extremely pleased to have reopened SoleLution, having had a thorough deep-clean and santisation of the whole premises and stock. I am also very pleased to say that our member of staff who tested positive for Covid-19 14 days ago has made a complete recovery and is now Covid free.”
SoleLution has had Covid-secure measures in place since it reopened in June to help protect staff and customers.
Shopping by appointment has been encouraged and staff marshal the door to allow a maximum of three groups of customers in the shop at any one time. Robust hygiene measures include hand-washing, face masks for all staff and customers, hand sanitiser and regular cleaning procedures throughout the store.
Tanya added: “We used a cleaning company specialising in decontamination of viral outbreaks which carried out a deep clean of the premises and stock. We will also display our certificate of disinfection so customers know we have done everything we can to protect them.”
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