A man named Zahid Iqbal runs Day-Today convenience store at the Drylaw Shopping Centre in Scotland. And although he’s by no means rich, he has given out thousands of dollars worth of supplies from his shop. Why? He simply wants to help.
During this time of crisis, Iqbal wanted to make sure that his elderly and immune-compromised customers stayed safe.
To help ensure that he keeps those at risk in his community as healthy as possible, Iqbal decided to create ‘survival kits’ – free of charge. In each survival pack, the shop owner has placed a roll of toilet paper, anti-bacterial hand sanitizer, a small packet of tissue, and a packet of pain reliever/fever reducer.
To pick up one of Iqbal’s survival kits, he’s extended his goodwill to people who are over the age of 65 and those that have limited mobility, finding increased difficulty during times of self-isolation or self-quarantine.
If people aren’t able to pick up their free survival kit, the 34-year-old store owner will deliver it to the their homes for no charge. All they need to do is call the shop.
Posted by DAY TODAY drylaw LOCAL onFriday, March 13, 2020
The selfless act of kindness came to him when he took his parents to the grocery store and they noticed all of the cleared out shelves.
“All the youngsters are picking stuff up and the older ones are being left out,” he told Edinburgh News. “We have lots of customers from the local care homes, as well as disabled customers, who can’t get hand sanitizers, loo rolls or anything at all.”
“We just want to set a good example in this world.”
Iqbal has already given away more than 1,000 kits and he hopes that other shops might follow suit.
“We’ve given away more than a thousand now, that’s just over the weekend,” says Iqbal. “It’s a time when we need to stick together.”
Each kit costs him around £5 (or approximately $6) to make, and he’s already spent nearly $6,100 on his philanthropic initiative. This isn’t even including the cost to do home deliveries. However, he knows he wants to help and he doesn’t have plans of stopping.
Iqbal’s next idea is to create food bags for those who can’t afford it or have access to it. Making bags with dry pasta, canned goods, and other non-perishables can maybe help relieve some of the fear around ‘panic-buying’ at the grocery store.
The Day-Today is a family-run store that has been open for over 15 years and has no plans of turning down anyone’s request for a survival kit.
“I had to get staff in to do deliveries, and petrol’s not included,” said Iqbal. “We’ve done quite a few deliveries to people who can’t get out and collecting. A lot of new people have been coming in showing appreciation as well and promising they’ll shop local in the future—lots of nice gestures.
“The appreciation we’ve been getting has been out of this world,” he added. “You couldn’t get this kind of satisfaction if you spent thousands of pounds, it’s amazing.”
Iqbal’s incredible act of kindness isn’t going unnoticed in his Scottish community and, hopefully, more people are able to follow in his footsteps — at a safe social distance, of course.
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