SAFE, SMILING RETURN TO THE HIGH STREET
FOR many, supermarket shopping has been one of the few chances to get out of the house during lockdown.
But now, as restrictions ease and our shops are reopened, the Daily Mirror’s Shop for Britain campaign is urging people to use their spending power to save our high streets.
Jack Downes, 31, is the store manager at the Iceland branch in Old Swan, Liverpool and he led the way on creating specific opening hours for the elderly and NHS staff.
Why is the High Street so important to communities?
From what I see, it’s vital for our regular customers. Obviously, shopping online is more convenient, but it’s more than that.
It’s the social interaction people get from coming into stores, meeting people and seeing what they’re buying. They’re also having a chat and speaking to staff.
We have regulars who come in weekly, such as Brian, who’s blind and can’t use online shopping. But this gets him out the house and he socialises with the staff.
The elderly and lonely come in all the time and it brightens up their day when they come out and interact with people instead of just sitting at home. Our staff know and recognise regulars and see them coming in all the time.
Coming here brightens up their day a bit, enabing them to get out and have that interaction.
What measures are being taken to keep customers safe when shopping?
We’ve got hand sanitiser dispensers like you get in hospitals and they are dotted around the stores. We also regularly wipe down the handles on our baskets and trolleys so they’re safe for customers to use. We have plastic gloves available in case anyone wants to use them.
We’ve also got a lot of floor guidance and signage around the store, leading people the right way down aisles and reminding people to social distance and respect other people’s boundaries.
We limit the capacity of how many we let in the store, and this is based on our total square footage. This particular store is quite big so we can average about thirty-five people inside at any one time.
If we ever feel it’s getting a bit too busy, we can close the doors and operate a one-in, one-out queuing system until it quietens down.
Why do people need to support the high street and back the Mirror’s Shop for Britain campaign?
It’s vital for the economy and for employment too. As soon as Covid-19 hit, other sectors saw people furloughed and jobs went down across the country. Because we were still open for business the number of job applications we were getting went through the roof. It was in the thousands and my headcount went from 24 people to over 50 in days.
The people we’ve had working with us include taxi drivers and staff from other retailers such as clothing stores which were shut down. They’ve got families and bills they need to pay and were struggling.
There’s a vast army of people who work in retail, but it isn’t until something like this happens that you realise how vitally important that sector is.
We have regulars who come in and the interaction brightens up their day