The Crosby Hotel public house has reopened as a pop-up community shop.
Since pubs were ordered to close on March 22, the Crosby Hotel’s staff have been delivering hot meals and drinks to nearby residents.
The pop-up shop has restored the pub building as a focal point in the community.
Licensee Angela Davies, who took over the venue in October, said: ’There’s nothing between Union Mills and St John’s so a food delivery service made sense. But everyone was saying "you should have a shop here, we can’t get bread, we can’t get milk". When we mentioned it to head office, things were already in the pipeline.’
Heron and Brearley, owners of the Crosby Hotel, operate a network of pubs and bars across the island and run a separate retail business of Spar stores. To compensate for the lack of nearby shops in Crosby, the company has brought the two businesses under one roof.
’There was obviously a big community need to make use of the facility, and the feedback we got was that it would be a good idea to have a shop in it’, explained Nick Price, operations manager for Spar Isle of Man.
The main bar in the pub was refitted in three days and opened its doors on April 3 to offer basic essentials to nearby residents.
The Crosby Hotel team are now running the food and home delivery service, while staff members from the Spar outlet in Union Mills are manning the pop-up shop.
Mrs Davies said: ’We’ve been so humbled by the reaction when people walk in and see the pub transformed into a shop. We’ve been very lucky here to have been given a lifeline, first with the food deliveries and now with the Spar shop.’
The pub will return in time. ’We can’t wait to welcome everybody back in’, she said.
’Baby Spar’ Crosby is open seven days a week at the Crosby Hotel and offers home delivery up to three miles away.
A menu of pub meals and drinks is also available for delivery, including a Sunday roast menu from 11.30am to 4pm.