As thousands of shoppers come out to indulge in some much-missed retail therapy this week, there are warnings things could take months to get back to normal.
Restrictions on “non-essential” shops were finally lifted this week, with customers hitting the streets to spend their hard earned cash, and help boost the British economy.
Many of the big retailers have been holding sales while Primark, Sports Direct, Zara and TK Maxx stores up and down the country have attracted huge queues.
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Despite all the hype and enthusiasm of bargain hunters who had been stuck at home for too long, there is still a sense that things are not back to normal – which will stay the case until the threat of Covid-19 has gone.
Stuart Delahoy runs the Set gift shop in Leicester city centre.
He thinks things won’t get back to relative normality until after the key Christmas trading business.
He said: “It’s gone pretty well.
“Monday felt like it was the first day of the sales and people were looking for the big hits from the likes of Next, Zara and JD Sports. We get a little bit overlooked when it’s like that, but it has been OK.
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“I would say we did about half the trade we would have expected to do on a normal day.
“I think it’s going to take a long while, and this is going to be the new normal until we are out of the pandemic.
“For shops like this it’s going to be touch and go and will depend on reducing costs.
“We can’t take anything beyond a 10 per cent hit to our turnover without having to adjust our business costs, which are rents, rates and wage bills.
“We are going to have to look at rent and have got help with rates this year, but it’s all going to take a lot of looking at.
“We are in an independently owned building, but we have spoken to our landlord who has been really nice and really supportive.
“Visitor numbers are massively down on what you would normally expect but there are certain stores which are busy. Many are them are busier than they would be but most of them have returned with sales on.”
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Leicester city centre director Sarah Harrison said it was good to have stores back in business and to see shoppers supporting the economy.
She said: “I went into the city centre from around 8am on Monday and watched the queues at Primark which were well ordered, and the massive queues outside Sports Direct where there was a 50 per cent sale.
“The people who were out were really representative of Leicester and everybody was in a really good mood – I think the weather helped that too.”
National data suggests footfall across the 海角视频 on Monday was up around 40 per cent on this time last week, but was still a third down on this time last year.
Small business minister Paul Scully said people should get out and shop, and noted the new looks that many stores will have as they attempt to ensure social distancing and good hygiene among staff and customers.
He said: “The high street is going to be a different place to what it was before, with the one-way systems, with the hand sanitisers, and with people not trying clothes on in the same way.
“But, nonetheless, it is safe to shop. I would encourage people to be sensible, work with the people in the shop but do go out and shop, and start opening our economy gradually and carefully.”
Jo Tallack, general manager at Leicester’s Highcross shopping centre, said there had been some queues and customers had told her they were just pleased to be able to visit their favourite shops again.
She said: “The safety and wellbeing of our shoppers, colleagues and retailers is of course our priority, and we’ve been working hard behind the scenes for the past few months to get everything ready.
“We’ve introduced a range of measures to keep everyone safe, including new signage, a one way system, and new hand sanitiser stations.
“We know that this new way of shopping is going to take some getting used to, but it was brilliant to see Highcross and Leicester busy again.”