We’re happy to report all is back to normal with our online service and shop now. Thanks for your understanding during the bad weather last week and especially thanks to the many customers – both existing and new – who sent in their photos and emails for our How Deep Is Your Snow? promotion which really helped keep our spirits up and, from your kind emails, many of yours too!

We re-opened for business yesterday (Thursday) and all pending orders have now been despatched. Apologies for having to shut on Tuesday and Wednesday but it was simply too dangerous for staff to get into work and the bad weather meant deliveries were unlikely to reach customers anyway, even if we had despatched them.

Understandably, couriers are still having problems delivering to lots of areas and we are still expecting delays in orders reaching customers but they are on their way. If you haven’t had your order by early next week, please do contact us.

Our Manchester shop will be closing early today though, at about 4pm, to allow staff to get home safely before it gets too dark. Thanks for your understanding.

I was at a party on Saturday night to celebrate the 60th birthday of a long-time friend of ours. A good time was had by all, including those of us who didn’t drink alcohol.

It certainly made a change to go to a party and be able to enjoy a glass of de-alcoholised wine and a cold beer. The host had stocked up on some of our drinks and many guests took advantage of them. It also made a change to not have drunken people say “Why are you not drinking? What’s wrong with you?” which is common if you are seen with a soft drink in your hand.

With a glass of de-alcoholised wine or beer in your hand, no one is any the wiser and they just get on with having a good time.

Ever better was seeing a couple of people pouring out some of the Weinkonig Merlot I had brought along, taking a sip, and then walking away happy – completely unaware they were drinking de-alcoholised wine.

To get to the title of this blog “Put in my place” I was told off by a friend of the host, who is also a customer of ours, because I hadn’t updated the blog much recently. I did apologise to her, and do also to you. We have had a lot to do recently with the shop and warehouse move, getting the new shop ready, etc.

I’ve also personally been busy on our new web site which is due to go live very soon. It’s based on the same site we have now, with an improved design and the odd enhancement to make your shopping experience better (for instance, you will be able to add items to your basket from the category listing without having to click on to the individual item).

When the site goes live, please don’t panic! Yes, it looks quite different from the current site on first glance, but it does basically work the same as the current site and you shouldn’t have any problems shopping as normal. If you do though, please let us know. We have worked hard to get the site ready and bug-free, but it’s always possible something may still be wrong when it goes live and we’d appreciate it very much if you would tell us of any problems you find so we can fix them.

We’ve just created a new page on Facebook for The Alcohol-Free Shop. Please do visit, “become a fan” and get involved. Let us know how we can use the page to improve our service and chat with us on the discussion forum! You can visit our page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manchester/The-Alcohol-Free-Shop/212147610293