A number of retail focused trade bodies have come together to put forward a number of recommendations to resolve the confusion over non-essential items in shops.
The Welsh Retail Consortium (WRC), The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), and the CBI hope the Welsh Government will agree to their recommendations, which they believe will allow the people of Wales to refocus all their energies on respecting the Fire Break.
The group says the recommendations will fulfil retail’s role in tackling the spread of the virus while allowing for discretion to be used on an individual basis – as recommended by Health Minister Vaughan Gething.
The recommendations are:
- To limit the spread of the virus and allow for individual discretion, retailers will prominently display Welsh Government approved signage in front of known non-essential items and in communal areas. The signage will make clear the government’s regulation and the need to abide by it.
- This message will be reinforced through in-store announcements and social media messaging. Advising customers to put off non-essential purchases
- We recommend the individual customer is trusted to make their own decision as to whether a product is non-essential or not, taking into account the notices displayed throughout the store and their immediate needs
- If the customer goes ahead with the purchase of the item the final liability ought to rest with the customer
- Retailers will remove special in-store promotional displays of non-essential items in order to minimise browsing and avoid triggering a non-essential purchase.
The recommendations mean non-essential items are not removed from shelves – or cordoned off in stores - but large notices are placed in front of the products and in communal spaces informing customers of the Welsh Government’s regulations and the Welsh public are trusted to make the right decision.
'Revised guidance' will be published today after a weekend of controversy in Wales over the decision to ban supermarkets and other shops allowed to remain open during the 'fire-break' lockdown from selling 'non-essential items'.
The Welsh Government said yesterday it planned to speak to the retail sector about the policy, which was announced last week. A government spokesman later confirmed those talks had taken place, and there would be news on changes today.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Ministers have held positive discussions with retail sector representatives this evening. Revised guidance will be published tomorrow.”
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There has been widespread criticism of the non-essential sales ban since it was announced on Thursday, October 22, just one day before Wales when into its two-week lockdown aimed at bringing down cases of coronavirus in Wales.
The intention was to prevent shops selling items like clothes during the lockdown when other retailers which only sold those items would be forced to close as they did not sell food.
But the short notice came in for criticism with Sara Jones, head of the Welsh Retail Consortium, saying: "This last minute guidance, whilst welcome, falls short of providing the level of certainty that our businesses have needed to manage and implement what is being expected of them."
However Ben Cottam, head of External Affairs at the FSB, argued for the banning the sale of non-essential items during the fireback.
"It is FSB’s view that if large supermarkets were able to continue selling non-essential items at a time when their small business competitors on the high street are forced to close, this will create an unacceptable advantage for those large retailers and particularly as we are now in the run up to Christmas," he said.
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On Friday, shops were busily sealing and taping off aisles which sold goods deemed by the Welsh Government to be non-essential.
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But at the weekend there were protests against the policy, with apparently ripping down all the coverings stopping people from buying non-essentials, and to complain about sales of clothes being banned.
More than 24,000 people have now signed a petition
There was also controversy after a customer was wrongly told by a Tesco employee that period products could not be sold as they were non-essential items, before it was revealed that an aisle selling the products had been .
And a sign apparently also added to the confusion.