John Lewis announces first phase of store reopenings
John Lewis will begin to reopen its stores for customers from 15th June, in line with government guidelines for non-essential retailers.
It will kick things off with its Poole and Kingston department stores, followed by 11 others on 18th June. The plan is to initially to open just under a quarter of its 50 locations. Further details here.
“Depending on the response from customers and Partners to our new ways of operating with respect to social distancing, more shops will open throughout the summer,” a press release notes.
Sharon White, Partner & Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, says: “The momentous events of the last few months have tested our resilience as a business…It’s been heartwarming to see John Lewis Partners stepping into different roles to support our Waitrose supermarkets and to keep johnlewis.com running.”
“Our shops reopening is a sign of hope as we begin to find our new normal. There’s an opportunity, now, for us, to come back stronger as a business, and offer the safety and reassurance that customers will want.”
Various measures will be introduced, drawing from the Partnership’s experience of applying and managing social distancing in its Waitrose supermarkets and from within the delivery and warehousing aspects of its e-commerce businesses.
These include protective screens at checkouts and areas of the store where two metre social distancing cannot be achieved between customers and staff. There will also be caps on the number of customers entering stores, the new contactless payment limit of £45 and the introduction of a “customer service host”.
These will be assigned to welcome customers into the store and answer any questions while managing customer numbers, queues both at entrances and busy areas of the store and explain to people about changes that have been made.
Other initiatives which may be considered include virtual queueing, returns drop boxes and enabling Click & Collect from branch carparks.
