SMILE – WE CAN SHOP AGAIN!
HIGH STREETS SPRING BACK TO LIFE
IT WAS almost business as usual in Cardiff city centre yesterday as non-essential shops reopened for the first time since closing at the beginning of lockdown in March.
Shoppers were on the streets as early as 8am to browse stores they haven’t had access to in more than three months, including bigger names such as Next, Zara and Sports Direct, as well as non-essential independent shops in the arcades.
But it was a fairly slow start to the day, with the city centre remaining relatively empty until late morning when the crowds gathering on Queen Street began to grow.
“I’ve been living alone since the start of lockdown, so it’s really important for me to get out,” said Sandra Evans, 69, from Cardiff, who was first in the queue for Next on Queen Street. “I usually come into town at 8am to go to Marks & Spencer’s food hall. It’s a beautiful day and I thought, ‘Why not stay in town a bit longer?’. So I started queuing here about 8.30am.”
Next opened its doors at 9.30am, with staff in full PPE waiting outside to let a small queue of around 15 people in.
Also in the queue were Sarah Brown, 50, and her daughter Lauren Brown, 28.
“We’re really excited to be here,” said Sarah, who lives in Abu Dhabi but has been staying with Lauren and her family throughout lockdown. “We’re not looking for anything in particular, but some clothes for my grandson would be nice.”
Lauren added: “I was so excited about shops opening last night that I stayed up and kept checking the Next website. We came down here and started queuing at 8.30am.”
The pair carried face masks in their bags, but weren’t wearing them in the queue as they felt it was easy to keep their distance from others.
Elsewhere on Queen Street, there were short queues outside clothing retailer Zara and JD Sports, although they quickly disappeared when doors opened at 9am.
Police officers patrolled the city centre and Cardiff council workers were on hand to guide shoppers and encourage people to keep to the new one-way system on Queen Street.
The system, which will be extended to other city-centre streets by the end of the week, encourages pedestrians to keep to the right-hand side as they walk with bright yellow markings on the pavement.
Elsewhere, hubs have also been set up by the council across the city centre to help shoppers with any concerns about the new layout, to provide them with information on what shops are open and when, and to act as hand-sanitising stations.
A spokesman for the Capitol Shopping Centre said that the car park was “very quiet” with plenty of spaces.
There were also ongoing road closures in place around the city centre, including Castle Street, which several business-owners said has contributed to the influx of shoppers being smaller than it possibly could have been.
Elsewhere, the St David’s shopping centre also reopened, but was relatively quiet. The one exception was
Sports Direct, where a small queue gathered.
In the arcades, home to some of the city’s best-loved independent businesses, there were also one-way systems in place and a limit placed on the amount of people allowed to enter at any one time.
In the Royal Arcade, 55 shoppers were permitted at one time; in the Morgan Arcade that number was 65.
In Wally’s Delicatessen, staff were happy to see returning customers, but there were fears that the footfall was still relatively low and concerns were expressed that road closures in the city centre have negatively impacted business.
Steven Salamon, who runs the shop, said: “We’re currently needing to sort out supply for Christmas with no idea if there’ll be a second peak and how big it will be. We were expecting lots of returning customers today, but there have been some issues, with some of the bigger shops like Primark not reopening and Castle Street being closed.”
Mr Salamon said there had not been much warning from Cardiff council regarding the street closure, which he believes has caused fewer people to venture into the city centre.
Elsewhere in the Royal Arcade, Philip Bottrill, director of art store Pen & Paper, said it felt good to be open again.
“Our regulars say they’re glad to be back – some of them have said there’s something about the smell of the paper and ink in a physical art shop that just isn’t the same when you do online shopping.”