It was an emotional decision, says Kyra van Elswijk, Chief Digital Officer at SPAR university. “But unfortunately, we can’t absorb the drop in turnover.” The campus is not only practically deserted, it seems people are becoming increasingly afraid to go to the supermarket, she believes. “You see more and more vans from grocery delivery services on campus. We can’t stop that, of course. That is why we informed the university about our decision to close the store. Fortunately, they showed much understanding.” SPAR university hopes to reopen its stores once the lectures on campus can be resumed.

Employees immediately started cleaning up the stores yesterday, and making an inventory of what could be donated to the local food banks. A donation has already been made in Eindhoven, Van Elswijk says. “We saw that food banks were extremely busy, so we are now talking to them to see whether our employees can lend a helping hand on a voluntary basis.”

Earlier this week, SPAR university started the initiative ‘Friends against corona’ to see whether employees sitting at home, especially those from catering, can be of help in the sectors currently so much in need of help at the moment. The initiative is aimed at the medical sector in particular. Van Elswijk says that this has not yet resulted in concrete actions. “We are actively looking online for requests for help, so that we can respond to that. I can also imagine that they are too busy now, and therefore don’t have the time to find us.”