Anyone for a spot of retail therapy?
Steam cleaning, personal appointments, one-way systems, sanitisers, masks and cough screens...
PERSPEX screens, steam-cleaned clothes and an absence of fitting rooms are set to be commonplace as retailers leave the lockdown behind from this week.
Brown Thomas will reopen its doors on Wednesday to shoppers in a brave new Covid-19 era.
The high-end department store on Grafton Street will reopen in parts with pods separating the different store sections to ensure a socially distanced experience.
The ground floor of the iconic retailer will be broken up into five separate sections that are each only accessible from the street.
Capacity will be limited to 450, so a restricted number of customers will be permitted to enter at any given time and shoppers will not be able to move between the sections in-store.
Its destination beauty emporium reopens with its own entrance, while the Mac store will also reopen as a standalone entity with a different entrance.
The Irish Mail on Sunday has also learned that the Brown Thomas Beauty Suite on Clarendon Street has been repurposed to serve as a click-and-collect store, stocking the retailer’s top 50 products.
For these who want to really splurge after months in lockdown the Hermes and Louis Vuitton concessions will reopen as an individual store on Wednesday.
The accessories hall will also reopen with its own entrance.
All other parts of the department store will remain closed off from the individually sectioned outlets, until full reopening is allowed under the Government’s plan.
Changing rooms will be accessible when the stores fully reopen. Clothes that have been handled or tried on will be professionally steamed, and returned garments will be steamed and quarantined.
The company confirmed it would introduce a range of anti-virus safety measures, including the regular sanitising of items on the shop floor handled by customers, as well as screens displaying the numbers of people in-store and a booking service to allow people to reserve time slots for entry.
This week, jobs minister Heather Humphreys warned customers to be prepared to queue, and that shopping would be a very different experience from before.
She urged people to show personal responsibility and to shop local and support local businesses.
‘When we return to the high street next week it will not be the one that we left behind,’ she said. ‘The shopping experience will be different. Be prepared to queue.
‘For many of us, leisurely browsing will have to be replaced by purposeful, direct shopping.’
Penneys will start reopening its high-street stores on Friday, with outlets located in shopping centres following on June 15 in line with the Government’s phased exit from lockdown.
Social distancing markers, hand sanitiser stations, Perspex screens at tills and additional store cleaning will be among the measures in place, the retailer said.
Stores will limit the number of customers allowed at any one time, and will employ extra security staff, with every second till closed off to allow more space between customers and staff.
Fitting rooms, toilets and cafes and beauty concessions will remain shut, but the situation will be reviewed.
Staff will all be given face masks and gloves, while extra cleaning will take place, especially in hightraffic areas such as escalators, lifts and tills.
‘As we re-open our stores in Ireland, nothing matters more than the health and wellbeing of our colleagues and customers,’ said chief executive Paul Marchant.
‘We have really missed our customers and we are delighted to be back trading again on our home soil. From June 12 we will be able to provide our customers with the quality, affordable products they love from Penneys.
‘We know that life for our customers is going to look different for a while. We want our stores to be safe and reassuring places to shop and work.
‘While it might take a little longer to get into our stores, once inside, customers will find all their favourite Penneys products and we have worked hard to make sure that clear signage and extra help will be there to guide them through the changes we have made to allow for social distancing.’
Smaller retailers are also adapting to the new landscape.
Well known Naas ‘destination boutique’ Kalu is preparing for a ‘gentle, soft re-opening’ on Monday.
Customers will have to make an appointment as doors will be locked. Only three will be allowed in at any one time, entering by the front door and exiting by the side.
Owner Louise Flanagan said customers will be allowed to try on clothes and professional steamers will sanitise any items tried on but not bought.
Hand sanitisers will be provided but customers’ toilets are off-limits. Kalu has two floors and three staff will be on duty.
Clodagh Shorten who owns the high-end fashion boutique Samui on Drawbridge Street in Cork city says that because it carries designer brands such as Dries Van Noten, it aims to give customers a memorable experience.
‘From Monday we’ll be taking appointments so that our customers can come in and browse and feel safe,’ she said.
‘If people want to come in off the street, we’re not going to turn them away but we’d have a maximum of four in the shop at any time, two upstairs and two downstairs.
‘We would only ever have one in the dressing room at a time.
‘If people try on a garment and don’t buy it, then we will steam clean it immediately before we put it back out.
‘We’ll also have sanitisers and masks available.’
Ms Shorten says they have been through three seasons since we went into lockdown – winter, spring and summer – ‘and only now are we getting to sell our summer clothes’.
‘Usually we would have our summer sales on now but because we haven’t sold much, we won’t be going on sale for a few weeks yet,’ she said.
‘Plus our brands have asked us not to go on sale until the end of June at least so that we can have parity with our European partners.
‘We’re lucky that we were never a big shop for people going to weddings but it’s true that our sales of dresses are down.
‘Our “Covid sellers” have been jeans, cashmere and sneakers.’
For customers going into
‘Browsing replaced by purposeful shopping’
‘Only one in dressing room at any one time’
menswear shops, it will be a similar experience,
Fitzgerald Menswear on Patrick Street in Cork, is one of the best known men’s outfitters in the country. Owner Eddie Mullins said he has spent the last two weeks working with external companies installing sanitising stations, signage and having the shop deep cleaned.
‘We have set up a one-way entry and exit system and have also installed a Perspex cough screen at the counter,’ he said.
‘We will also provide various types of gloves and masks to ensure a safe environment for our staff and customers alike.
‘The cost of all these measures being implemented has run into several thousand euro which is an investment we are happy to make to adhere to Government guidelines.
‘We’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of positive messages we’ve received from our many loyal customers and friends.
‘We also are now offering private appointments within the store at a time of one’s choosing and offering a free delivery service nationwide.
‘We currently have a staff of 10, including tailors and weekend staff who will all be retained in employment.
‘Naturally we are apprehensive about reopening since this is probably the longest period of time the shop has been closed for in its 160year history.
‘But Fitzgerald’s menswear has traded through world wars revolutions and previous pandemics.
‘We know we will overcome this challenge too and look forward to being of service to the great people of Cork for many years to come.’
Retail Ireland director Arnold Dillon said he is sure individual retailers will be looking into how to make shopping a pleasurable experience for customers while maintaining social distancing but said his organisation’s biggest concern was getting the sector open.
He said: ‘Some of that shopping experience will significantly change. As opposed to being a recreational activity it will have to be more functional for the foreseeable future. Shopping centres will be a very different experience. Health and safety will be the priority but that has to be the focus at the moment. Getting people back to work and getting some turnover has been the immediate priority.’
Mr Dillon added that seeing how consumers had responded to changes in grocery and DIY retailers due to Covid-19, he was confident they will adapt well, as other companies reopen their doors.