ON the latest leg of our whistlestop tour around Helensburgh businesses getting some reopening reaction last week we stopped in at The Scandinavian Shop in Sinclair Street.

Retail and leisure premises around the area welcomed back customers for the first time this year on Monday, April 26 and the Advertiser heard from just a few of them to find out how it went.

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LUCY Paterson, who owns The Scandinavian Shop, said online sales together with government and council grants have helped her business survive the pandemic, but she admitted it was “a huge relief” to be able to open the Sinclair Street store again.

She said: “It’s not the same packing parcels in a warehouse as it is having people coming into a shop, this is what shopping should be about.

“That combination of online and high street is the way we like to do it and it works well for us.

“One without the other just feels like there’s something missing to me, so I feel really happy to see people again.

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“We’ve been open since 1971, so people have been coming into the shop for years and they’ve missed that.

“You realise you’re more than a shop, you become part of somebody’s life and part of the community."

The independent boutique offers a range of original gifts and home accessories with a Nordic twist, and its strong online presence has mitigated - at least to some extent - the impact of the shop's closure.

Lucy said: "Because we have the online side of the business we’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to keep our heads above water.

READ MORE: Reopening reaction: Helensburgh back in business after lockdown

"If we didn’t have help from the government it would’ve been awful trying to keep this going.

"We still had bills to pay, stock to buy, so it’s been hard but it would’ve been harder if we didn’t have the other side to the business, and I don’t know what we would’ve done without the grant we received from the council."

And despite the stop/start nature of life for everyone since the beginning of the pandemic, Lucy believes the latest lockdown easing is a turning point in the battle to return to normality.

"There are lots of unknowns," she added, "there’s always that feeling in the back of your mind that things might stop again but there’s definitely a feeling of positivity now.

READ MORE: 'Community support is overwhelming': Burgh businesses thriving after lockdown

"It’s a big hope that this is it, we’re going to keep going from now. It certainly feels like a significant moment.

"People seem more confident than they did after the last lockdown and they are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and are more ready for it now.

"Everything we can do to keep the place clean and keep people safe we are doing. We don’t feel comfortable if our customers don’t feel comfortable, so people should feel that we’re here for them.

“The more you’re out there for your customers the more they’ll support you back.”