Shops in England reopen, but demand uncertain

Shops in England reopen, but demand uncertain

[NFA] After 83 days in lockdown, non-food stores in England are reopening.

Quite how many shoppers will turn up though, remains very uncertain.

Julian Satterthwaite reports.

After 83 days in lockdown, shops in England are reopening.

Non-essential stores have been closed since March 23 to stop the spread of the virus.

The British Retail Consortium reckons that every week shut cost non-food retailers 1.8 billion pounds - about 2.3 billion dollars.

Now the question is whether shoppers will turn up.

They’re likely to face long lines outside, and strict hygiene and social distancing rules.

Big chains are taking different approaches.

With no online operation, fashion retailer Primark is reopening all its stores in England at once.

But rival Next is opening just 25 branches, and department store John Lewis only two.

On Sunday (June 14) Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited an east London shopping centre to view preparations for reopening.

He says people can start to feel more confident about venturing out: "As we get numbers down, so it becomes one in a thousand one in 1,600 may be even fewer, your chances of being two metres or one metre or even a foot away from somebody who has the virus is obviously going down statistically, so you start to build some more margin for manoeuvre.” Analysts say Monday (June 15) may see an initial surge.

Researcher Springboard says there’s a huge amount of pent up demand.

But many wonder whether that early surge will soon fade away.

Meanwhile, Monday’s reopening does not apply to Scotland and Wales, where devolved administrations are yet to give guidance.