Following the Prime Ministers Boris Johnson’s unexpected announcement late on Saturday evening which has confirmed that from Thursday 5th November England is entering its official second national lockdown which will see all non-essential shops, pubs and restaurants close their doors until at least 2nd December with uncertainty looming that the lockdown could be extended and carried out throughout December says cabinet minister Michael Grove who told Sky News. By Nicola Wright
Following the news shoppers today across the country have gathered in the thousands to finalise their last minute buys before the official lockdown comes into play with reports estimating that the next three days are also set to be far busier then normal as individuals prepare their Christmas gifts and last minute essentials due to the uncertainly of the next couple of months ahead. However department stores that offer click and collect services are still able to operate as long as the store is following and has safety measures in place customers will be able to collect their purchases from in-store as well as online delivery services.
Edinburgh, Newcastle, Essex and thousands of other cities, towns and villages have seen pubs busier and queues of up to 30 minutes or more wait to enter stores.
Essential shops that are primarily supermarkets will of course stay open across the country with ongoing safety measures in place. I am sure learning from the previous lockdown that stores may be putting their own restrictions and limitations on various products as it was seen previously toilet roles, pasta and flour fly off the shelves with consumers panic buying in fear that they will run out of essential products. But one important factor to remember on this topic is these produce’s are made within the U.K that can and is stocked in various supermarkets so they will not be any shortages so long as people do not over indulge as this will cause a delay in delivery back into the stores.
With the uncertainty hanging over the High Street as according to reports Non-essential shops seen a loss in profits of up to £1.6 billion within a single week in the previous national lockdown which is naturally setting worries and doubts into the big high street names as to what is going to evolve in the next couple of months with the Christmas period looming ever closer and being the busiest time of the year for retail. For the bigger organisations they will more then likely see sales carried out online however it may not be equivalent to previous years given this year’s financial impact on a lot of individuals but for the smaller independent stores who may not offer delivery service online is showing a sad loss for their business within this busy period.
Andrew Goodacre the chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association has spoken and advised “the timing could not be worse for small shops since Christmas shopping was already starting and will now end up being carried out online.”
In light of he new national lockdown restrictions coming into affect on Thursday we are all hoping that we can see a decrease in new positive cases and fatalities so this will enable us all to try and adjust slowly back into reality for December so long as individuals abide by the rules and restrictions put in place.
