{"id":8404,"date":"2020-06-15T20:37:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T17:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/weve-missed-it-long-lines-form-outside-shops-in-england\/"},"modified":"2020-06-15T20:37:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T17:37:00","slug":"weve-missed-it-long-lines-form-outside-shops-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/weve-missed-it-long-lines-form-outside-shops-in-england\/","title":{"rendered":"#\u2018We\u2019ve missed it\u2019: Long lines form outside shops in England"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#\u2018We\u2019ve missed it\u2019: Long lines form outside shops in England<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n LONDON \u2014 Long lines stretched along streets across England as shops selling items considered as nonessential during the coronavirus pandemic, such as sneakers and toys, welcomed customers on Monday for the first time since the U.K. was put into lockdown in late March.<\/p>\n

Starved of the retail experience for the best part of three months, shoppers general<\/a>ly app<\/a>eared to abide by the social<\/a> distancing requirement to stay two meters (6-1\/2 feet) apart as they awaited their turn to enter the stores.<\/p>\n

Not everywhere, though \u2014 pushing and shoving was evident at the NikeTown store on Oxford Street, London\u2019s world-famous shopping mecca, at its reopening.<\/p>\n

For friends Dionne Sumner and Olivia Copeland, both 25, it was a far more orderly experience when they waited to get into their local budget clothes retailer Primark in Liverpool. Arriving at the store at 8:30 a.m., they queued for about 15 minutes before getting in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been planned, we\u2019ve been really missing it,\u201d Copeland said after spending more than $250. \u201cIt is nice to get back out, it\u2019s better than being stuck in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s reopening of shops, from department stores to booksellers and electronic retailers, only applies to England. Scotland and Wales are taking a more tentative approach to the easing of the coronavirus restrictions. Northern Ireland\u2019s stores reopened last week. England also saw zoos, safari parks and drive-in cinemas reopen on Monday.<\/p>\n

The new shopping experience is anything but normal, though.<\/p>\n

Shops are limiting numbers and are providing hand sanitizers at the door as well as creating one-way traffic systems inside. Plastic screens protect workers from shoppers at payment counters and some shops will only take cards, not cash. At the Apple store on Regent Street in central London, staff checked customers\u2019 temperatures and insisted upon face coverings.<\/p>\n

Roger Shakles, managing director of Sewcraft, a small haberdashery shop in the town of Swindon, said people have to sanitize their hands before entering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a very tactile shop, people have to feel and touch to get an idea of what they\u2019re buying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not all shops in England are reopening. Many say the social distancing guidelines are just too difficult and are urging the British government to reduce the 2-meter requirement.<\/p>\n

Critics have also accused the government of being too hasty given still-high levels of daily coronavirus infections. Though the country\u2019s daily virus-related death rates have fallen to below those seen before the lockdown, there are worries of a second spike. The U.K., as a whole, has recorded 41,698 coronavirus-related deaths, the third highest in the world behind the United States and Brazil.<\/p>\n

Customers are being encouraged to \u201cbe sensible\u201d as the government seeks to reopen the economy \u201cgradually and carefully.\u201d Figures last week showed that the U.K. economy shrank by 20% in April alone.<\/p>\n

Despite the reopening, footfall is not expected to come anywhere near levels pre-lockdown.<\/p>\n

At London\u2019s Oxford Street, normally teeming with shoppers crowded shoulder-to-shoulder, businesses have installed scores of signs to ensure social distancing. Some sidewalks have been widened and extra bike stations were put up to encourage shoppers to travel<\/a> there without using the city\u2019s Underground subway.<\/p>\n

With virtually no tourists in town, London\u2019s entire West End shopping and theater district is expected to see just 10% to 15% of its normal customers this week. International tourists now face a 14-day quarantine upon arrival in Britain.<\/p>\n

Linda Pilkington, who owns a high-end perfume boutique off London\u2019s designer and jewellery hub of Bond Street, says the shopping experience will inevitably be dulled because restaurants, theaters and other entertainment facilities remain closed. She expects an extremely slow transition to a new normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like the social side of shopping. When you hit Bond Street and all the grand shops, it\u2019s an exciting event,\u201d she said. \u201cAll those people coming to London for a show, making a weekend of it, that won\u2019t be there. It\u2019s just not going to be the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pilkington\u2019s tiny shop, Ormonde Jayne, will only let one customer in at a time. Shoppers will be encouraged to sanitize their hands and the whole store needs to be wiped down every time a shopper leaves.<\/p>\n

Browsing the aisles maybe a welcome change from scrolling online, though touching merchandise may be discouraged and many changing rooms will be off-limits.<\/p>\n

John Lewis, a popular British department store with outlets around the country, is hoping to turn the lower shopper numbers into an advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that, while the overall atmosphere will feel a bit different to them, what they\u2019ll actually find is a kind of pleasant surprise that it\u2019s calm, it\u2019s pleasant, it\u2019s well ordered,\u201d said Andrew Murphy, director of operations. \u201cBut it\u2019s also still got the real advantage of the physical shopping experience and the things that you can\u2019t do online.\u201d<\/p>\n

To lure wary shoppers back, the upscale department store Selfridges has lined up street performers to entertain anyone queuing, while DJs will play music inside to liven things up. Selfridges said the last time it had to close its doors was in 1941 when it was hit by a bomb during World War II.<\/p>\n

Analysts say the pandemic has accelerated a shift to online shopping, not least because many businesses need to cut rental costs to survive. Paul Martin, U.K. head of retail at KPMG, believes \u201cconsumers have formed new habits that will see the online channel continue to be more prominent going forward.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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“#\u2018We\u2019ve missed it\u2019: Long lines form outside shops in England” LONDON \u2014 Long lines stretched along streets across England as shops selling items considered as nonessential during the coronavirus pandemic, such as sneakers and toys, welcomed customers on Monday for the first time since the U.K. was put into lockdown in late March. Starved of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[357,17334,17335,17336,17337],"class_list":["post-8404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-357","tag-weve-missed-it-long-lines-form-outside-shops-in-england","tag-london-long-lines-stretched-along-streets-across-england-as-shops-selling-items-considered-as-nonessential-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic","tag-such-as-sneakers-and-toys","tag-welcomed-customers-on-monday-for-the-first-time-since-the-u-k-was-put-into-lockdown-in-late-march-starved-of-the-retail-experience-for-the-best-part-of-three-months"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}