SHOPS TO CLOSE OVER STAFF AND CUSTOMER SAFETY FEARS

A NUMBER of stores yesterday announced that they were shutting for much of today over safety fears for their staff and customers.

Supermarkets Tesco and Lidl said they would be shutting their stores across Leinster and Munster, while department stores Brown Thomas and Arnotts also announced they were closing.

Tesco said its stores in Munster and Leinster would open from 9am to 2pm today before reopening at 1pm tomorrow.

Tesco director Christine Heffernan said: ‘We’ve taken the decision to reduce trading hours in stores covered by the red alert to ensure the safety of our colleagues and customers.’

Lidl said it had decided to shut all branches in Leinster and Munster from 3pm this afternoon until 1pm tomorrow.

Aldi and SuperValu said they were monitoring the situation. No spokesman was available for Dunnes Stores but staff at three supermarkets said, as far as they knew, they were due to open today.

A SuperValu spokesman said: ‘Individual stores will decide whether to open tomorrow and there will be some store closures or reduced opening hours.’

Meanwhile, Eason said it was closing all its shops across the country until midday tomorrow. Furniture chain Harvey Norman closed its branches in Dublin, Cork and the east coast yesterday.