To post or not to post?

With the virus, many people are at home & many people shopping online. All my events up to Ocotber 202 have been cancelled. The shops & galleries I sell though, have without exception closed, my teaching studio is closed and I have no business income coming in.

I have a dilemma, do I open my online shops and post out, take advantage or remain closed. Is jewellery important? my competitors are reproducing designs and even selling them through the same portals. It's not personal, it is business, but here is where we differ (I hope) this work has always been more than a business to me, It has been a channel for expression, an allegory, a physical manifestation of people's life stories.

I want to work, but maybe the compromise is make but at least for the next two weeks, don't post out, What do you think?

This is a post from another friend, a small business who like many of us out there has to work to earn a living however reading it gave me a perspective that I wouldn’t experience myself. It’s worth a read.

" We have a lovely friend called Sarah who is a postie, in a red van but without a black and white cat to keep her spirits up on her round. Anyway, on a normal Monday in March Sarah would expect to have 5 parcels to deliver. On a normal Monday in early December (coming up to Christmas) she would expect to have 15 parcels to deliver. Last Monday she had 50 parcels to deliver, and added to all that extra workload she says it's hard to find anywhere to wash her hands or use the bathroom (because all the pubs, cafes and shops are closed). She is having to eat her lunch in a graveyard because the church there has an outside tap. So ..... please consider the posties, and all the extra stress and strain they are under, and all the miles and miles they have to walk, and they can't get any protective clothing (masks, gloves, etc) because a) people have bought lots and lots of them and there were never enough to go round, and b) protective clothing is being targeted towards hospitals (which is a good and necessary thing) but there isn't sufficient for the other services - like posties. It's a difficult thing. An absolute tangle of ethics. On one hand, small businesses need to try to keep going and to keep their employees in jobs by diverting to online; self employed people (like us) need to keep working and making stuff because otherwise we can't afford to pay our bills and eat because the government's Helpful Measures aren't, actually, helpful in any shape or form. But do please, please, please consider the posties, and the delivery drivers, and try to make their lives as easy and pleasant as you possibly can because (not to put too fine a point on it) they are all risking their health, and the health of their own partners and children, each and every day to bring us things."

My words now, I hope you understand I’m putting this here to try and show another perspective x