Supplies in reserve: stepping up to serve the community
As the manager of a local grocery store, Able Seaman Dan Arnel is a key worker during the pandemic, and his Royal Naval Reserves training at HMS Flying Fox has never been so relevant to his day job.
Day to day, Dan manages the back office of a Costcutter store in Exeter, dealing with orders, reports and outlets. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit his co-workers hard, Dan suddenly found himself running the whole store.
Dan’s store is an essential source of groceries for the local neighbourhood. Overnight he gained a whole new list of responsibilities, including managing staff, customer services and making sure the shop was ready for social distancing.
Dan said,
“Some of my loyal customers are very vulnerable during this time. I set up a service to deliver their shopping so they can self-shield in the safety of their homes.
The demand for essential supplies such as milk, flour and eggs has grown massively so I’ve had to source some products locally from farms or other suppliers. I negotiated and processed payments to new, sometimes small providers in order to supply the demand.”
Dan joined the Royal Naval Reserves 7 years ago. His current role includes supporting merchant shipping, understanding the maritime economic environment and using navigational aids and charts.
Known in the Reserves as AB Arnel, the skills he has learned in his spare-time role has helped him rise to the challenge of the pandemic in his day job. He says:
“The leadership, teamwork, communications and management skills I have learned from the Reserves have been especially beneficial in the current environment, where we need to manage the number of people using our shop.
Sometimes, a polite but authoritative tone has to be set in order to maintain social distancing and keep customers and staff safe!”
But it’s not just the leadership training leadership that his employer values.
“I’m even First Aid qualified through the Royal Naval Reserves, so my employer doesn’t need to fund a course for me!”
Dan joined the Reserves for a change of pace from his daily life, and appreciates the travel that comes with his role.
“I’ve built strong and lasting friendships right from the start of my career in the Reserves. I now have friends across the country. It sometimes means visiting them in areas of the UK I have never been to before.
I wanted to do something completely different in my spare time from my day job, and to seek new experiences. It’s an opportunity for a different lifestyle I’ll neither forget nor regret.”
