Retail

New safety guidance for UK retailers reopening stores

15 May '20

2 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

The United Kingdom recently provided retailers with new safety guidance to help them prepare store re-openings next month. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said June 1 is the provisional date given to non-essential retailers to begin a phased reopening. Retailers have been advised to make efforts to comply with social distancing or take other measures where that is not possible.

Other mitigating measures include reviewing store layouts, screens or barriers to separate people from each other, side-to-side or back-to-back working (rather than face-to-face) where possible, staggering the arrival and departure times of employees to avoid overcrowding, additional parking or bike racks to encourage employees to travel to work without using public transport, reducing movement around stores with the encouraged use of radios or telephones for communication, and a one-way flow system through stores with floor markings and signage.

Staff should also be grouped into shift patterns or pairings to reduce contact as much as possible, according to British media reports.

Meetings should be limited and break times should be staggered with packaged meals provided to avoid opening staff canteens. Handwash facilities and cleaning materials should be made readily available.

To manage customers, retailers are encouraged to define the number of customers that can reasonably follow two metre physical distancing within the store, limit the number of customers in store and encourage them to shop alone, have more than one entry point in larger stores to reduce congestion, use floor markings and signage to aid social distancing, use contactless payment where possible, suspend or reduce customer services that cannot be undertaken without breaking social distancing guidelines, and use outside space for queuing where possible.

Fitting rooms should also be carefully considered and only used where necessary, according to the guidelines.

Retailers have been advised to limit customers’ handling of merchandise through different display methods or rotation of high-touch stock.

Returns should also be kept separate from displayed merchandise to reduce likelihood of transmission.

An additional £14 million has been made available to the health and safety executive to support businesses in making stores and workplaces safe.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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