The chairman of retail chain Trago says the Government should look seriously at following Sweden’s approach to handling the coronavirus pandemic rather than ordering lockdowns which damage the economy and drive companies out of business.
Bruce Robertson, who has had to close some departments at his English stores during the current four-week lockdown, said the Swedish “model”, which has avoided implementing a full-scale lockdown, is preferable for the economy and hasn’t resulted in a worse outcome for health than in some other nations.
In late October it was reported Sweden’s average daily death toll, though rising, was 0.6, as the 海角视频’s and France’s soared to 200. The Scandinavian country has also experienced a much lower fall in GDP compared to the 海角视频 and Spain.
Mr Robertson is exasperated by the approach from governments in England and Wales, where he has stores operating under different rules.
He is critical of the one-month English lockdown, imposed on November 5, which means his stores in Devon and Cornwall can stay open but can’t sell “non-essential” goods such as carpets, furniture, clothes, shoes, sports goods and fitted kitchens and bathrooms.
The has reopened, after a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown in Wales.
But Mr Robertson is glad that at least the stores in Newton Abbot, Liskeard and Falmouth can trade – , resulting in the business having to make 220 redundancies.
Mr Robertson questioned whether lockdowns are the correct approach, warning that another total lockdown could spell the end of his business after 55 years, and said the 海角视频 should “take the Swedish model and refine it a little”.
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He said: “If we had adopted the Swedish model and then possibly said the vulnerable, elderly and sick should self-isolate for, maybe, 90 days, although I know that is difficult, and the rest of us getting on with it in places of work or education.”
He said the nation needs to weigh the risk to life from the virus against the “dreadful future we are weighing on our children and children’s children” by damaging the economy.
“The Government has to change tack,” he said. “We learned from the first lockdown that Trago can’t afford to close. Reopening was difficult to manage and customers did not understand the staggered reopening.
“And the closure resulted in us, for the first time in our 55 years, having to make 220 souls redundant. So we can’t afford to be closed.
“If there was to be another lengthy total lockdown I would be facing another 200 redundancies at which point I simply could not operate the business – that could be the end.
“We will do everything in our power, within the law, to avoid that eventuality.”
Mr Robertson also asked why the 海角视频 still has no effective test and trace system, or a vaccine, months after Covid became a major problem.
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And Mr Robertson said his stores, the largest of which cover 200,000sq ft, are perfectly safe to open fully with safety measures.
“We have space and can guarantee socially distanced safe shopping,” he said. “That’s what we have been providing and will continue to provide.”
He stressed that people who had ordered so-called non-essential goods would definitely receive them even while those departments are closed until the lockdown ends on December 2.
“Contact us by the web or phone and we will get your order to you,” he said.
Trago, which does not trade online, is also working on a click-and-collect offer, a method of trading that has been permitted during the second lockdown.
But 67-year-old Mr Robertson said he is probably too old to oversee e-commerce embraced fully and said: “Bricks and mortar is what I grew up with. The transformation will be managed by younger people.”