Click and collect queue raises fears over social distancing risks
NEW MEASURES MAY BE INTRODUCED
SHOPPERS have raised concerns about long queues forming at nonessential shops offering click and collect services in Grimsby.
A queue outside Next in Victoria Street had more than a dozen people waiting to collect orders they had made online, according to one recent shopper who contacted the Grimsby Telegraph.
Stores like Next are not allowed to be open during lockdown because they are classed as non-essential but they can open to allow for collection of online orders which is free for customers. It seems more people are opting for the free option of click and collect rather than pay the £3.99 for standard delivery to your home. One shopper told the Grimsby Telegraph: “They are a big chain and could easily use a delivery service.” Another man queueing said: “I don’t want to be here. I only stopped to get something else from the store next door and had a text saying I could collect from Next.
“It is a difficult situation and can see how firms are trying to navigate a middle way to keep everyone safe and keep their service going.” Government ministers are discussing whether only supermarkets and essential suppliers can continue with click and collect.
In an attempt to stem the increase in the number of new coronavirus cases, new measures may have to be introduced with the aim of easing the chronic numbers of people ending up in hospitals. Ministers don’t want to extend the click and collect ban to supermarkets, as it could see home delivery services overwhelmed.
But collection services from restaurants, clothes shops and more could be affected.
The rising number of new cases has also fuelled calls to extend the social distance restriction to three metres, instead of the current two metres.
On Tuesday, John Lewis revealed it would end click and collect services based within its department stores to avoid non-essential travel and in-home services will be carried out only if “essential” to customers’ wellbeing. It came as Sainsbury’s said it would deploy security guards
at store entrances to make sure customers wore masks, as well as urging shoppers to make trips alone. Morrisons has also announced that customers refusing to wear a mask without a medical exemption would be told to leave stores. Other ideas discussed include closing businesses such as estate agents that have been allowed to stay operating so far - seeing staff told to work from home.
There could also be new restrictions on the property market, meaning people could only move home “where necessary”.