Wodonga-based Arnold's Fruit Market and South Albury business Almar Organics had already ramped up home deliveries to Border customers since the coronavirus crisis surfaced during March.

Arnold's Fruit Market general manager Ben Arnold said they had taken calls daily from customers inquiring about home delivery since the border closure.

Mr Arnold said while Albury-Wodonga residents could apply for a permit from Service NSW, the checkpoints to return to Albury had put off some customers.

"While it's easy to get a permit, I think it's a deterrent to retail shopping at this early stage (in the closure)," he said.

"We're telling customers to let us do the work for you through Arnold's Online."

Having introduced Arnold's Online 18 years ago, Mr Arnold said they hit the ground running to service border customers once lockdown measures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were introduced in March.

He said home deliveries had spiked at five-fold their normal volume.

"We've been able to maintain that with only a slight reduction (since restrictions eased)," Mr Arnold said.

"I think people got used to the service and took advantage of it and enjoyed the convenience.

"We didn't see a decline in our retail sales either."

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Almar Organics co-owner Clint Hall said the business had been constantly responding to the changing environment throughout the coronavirus crisis.

Mr Hall said their home deliveries had peaked during the first lockdown during autumn.

"Now it's back in everyone's faces and people are thinking differently about how they shop," he said.

Mr Hall said the border closure had caused confusion for many North East customers and even deterred some people travelling from Wodonga at this early stage of the closure.

"The North East has been a really bizarre scenario (in permit allowances)," Mr Hall said.

"But we're delivering up to 100 kilometres to the Upper Murray, Myrtleford, Yackandandah, Beechworth and Wangaratta as well as Border customers."

While Arnold's delivers to more than 70 suburbs and towns along the border, Mr Arnold said they now had four to five drivers, up from one to two, servicing the region from Wagga to the North East.

"We're constantly adapting the business at Arnold's; this year we'd already adapted to the bushfires, then COVID-19 hit," he said.

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