Paul Gardner, owner of Budgens of Islington, says he’s glad the January slump is over and this week has seen strange flurries of footfall thanks to forecast snow.

“It’s been a very busy week. There was just a flutter of snow and there was a forecast for a bit more and everyone just decided they had to go out to get milk and bread and tins of soup. 

”We had a hard January this year. It seemed that everyone was taking part in Dry January and our alcohol sales were really affected. However we did see the sales slowly come back as the month went on and now the sales are above what they were this time last year!

”Another thing we were hit by was Veganuary - when people go vegan for January. Our butcher really took a hit but now he’s just done his best week of sales since he first came to the store last summer, excluded Christmas week.

“Hot food-to-go is also going really well now and our sushi counter has been really popular as people have been trying to eat healthy.

“Another surprisingly popular area is our vape station. I think in January people were really trying to kick the tobacco habit and were moving to vaping. We all had training to tell customers about the differen strengths and whatnot and I think that knowledge has helped.”