PM gives greenlight to home delivery by butchers, bakers, greengrocers
Monday, 6 April 2020
Independent butchers, bakers and greengrocers can make home deliveries during lockdown but their shops must remain closed, the prime minister says.
At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern clarified what the businesses could and couldn't do while the country remains at alert level 4.
'What you will have heard me say many times is that what can be accessed in supermarkets, people can access through alternative means, online and so on,' she said.
'What we have said to those grocers is that they can't open their retail ends, they can't open their shops, and that's something we have been utterly consistent on.
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'We cannot have people consistently being in interaction with each other through the retail side of multiple different food suppliers,' Ardern said.
Because many independent businesses were not set up to sell their product through other channels, they had not been able to continue operating.
'There has always been guidance that wholefoods can be provided online,' she said.
'That's why you've got outlets like My Food Bag who have continued to operate, and others.'
However, advice from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which maintains the list of essential services allowed to operate during the lockdown, remains unclear.
One page on its website states: 'Butchers, bakeries and similar small-scale retailers are considered non-essential, as similar products are readily available in supermarkets', while another includes 'whole-food delivery services' as an essential service.
'We continue to look at a number of options to make it easier for people to access essential services as we progress through the alert level 4 lockdown, but no decisions have been made on this,' an MBIE spokeswoman said.