Retail therapy, last pints: England readies for new lockdown

Last-minute shoppers in England came out in force Wednesday, and thirsty drinkers planned their final freshly poured pints in a pub for the next month as Britain prepared to join large swaths of Europe in a coronavirus lockdown designed to save its health care system from being overwhelmed.

All nonessential venues — which in England includes pubs, restaurants, hairdressers, golf courses, gyms, swimming pools, entertainment places and stores selling items like books, clothing and sneakers — must close today until at least Dec. 2. That order came after a sudden change of course last weekend by Britain’s government, which had for weeks been advocating a targeted regional response to the pandemic instead of another national lockdown.

Two changes from the U.K.’s spring lockdown is that this time schools and universities in England are remaining open, as are construction sites and factories.

With time running out to get things sorted out before the lockdown takes effect, all types of businesses extended their hours and reported brisk customer traffic, sometimes on an unprecedented scale.

London hairdresser Richard Ward said his team of about 100 will have worked through 1,400 customers in the three working days since the British government announced the England-wide lockdown, but weekly business was still down about 25% on an annual basis as a result of coronavirus restrictions already in place.

“The staff are working back to back, all days off have been canceled, all holidays have been canceled,” Ward said. “When you have high overheads like we have here, it’s a numbers game, and you have to take a lot of money in order to pay all these people and pay all the overheads.”