The Government has recently announced that from June 15 2020, all non-essential retailers such as fashion, bookshops, home and beauty, will be allowed to open their doors once again.
However, it will be a very different experience for everyone when they visit their local high street or shopping centre.
Social distancing measures will be in place, with shoppers being encouraged to shop solo.
Individual retailers will also be putting their own safety measures in place including limiting the number of people in store and in the case of smaller retailers, perhaps insisting that face coverings be worn.
And there will be queues!
We have seen with the re-opening of garden centres and more recently drive-through burgers, that there appears to be an appetite to get back to shopping in person rather than digitally.
But how quickly and to what extent will customers start to visit stores again?
For now, it will be a case of efficiently purchasing what you need rather than perhaps the relaxed more social occasion enjoyed by shoppers before the lockdown began.
No doubt, further relaxing of the lockdown guidelines by the Government over the coming months will further help retail in the future. But for now, many retailers will be keeping a wary eye on the cost and benefit of opening versus the number of customers visiting.
I would think that it’s impossible to even estimate the likely footfall for the weeks following June 15 2020. But hopefully shoppers will safely return to support town centres and shopping centres in the months to come.
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