Retailers plan to keep Covid measures in place

Most Covid rules, including legal requirements on wearing face masks, are to be removed as part of the final step of the roadmap for ending restrictions in England.

David Wyatt, of Costcutter in Crawley, Sussex, believes that society is split between those living in fear and those who see the risk of Covid in a different light. He said: “I will keep screens up to protect my staff from customers. I do not believe masks are conducive to giving good customer service. Lastly, I have managed customer numbers in store for 15 months, those processes will stay in place.”

Sue Nithyanandan, who runs a Costcutter in Epsom, Surrey, says that while the lifting of restrictions is “very welcome”, the removal of all guidelines of social distancing and wearing masks in stores and public transport will make the vulnerable and elderly very nervous.

“They have been venturing out to a safe environment and I will endeavour to provide them with that. Our screens will stay and staff will have the option to wear masks. Personally, I hate masks, but it has brought so many benefits – I haven’t had a cold in over a year – and thankfully my staff have been protected from this virus.”

Samantha Coldbeck, business partner at Wharfedale Premier in Hull, said: “Personal choice is the key message and as always, we’ll do our utmost to keep our customers safe in-store.”

Nisa retailer Amit Puntambekar, owner of Ash’s Store in the village of Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, agrees that personal choice is key. “We’ll still keep our screens up and manage busy patches with our traffic light system. However, more people are ignoring the lights,” he added.

Anita Nye, of Premier Eldred Drive Stores in Orpington, Kent, said her store will be keeping its screens and hand sanitiser stations up so they are there if people want to use them. “We will keep the traffic light up for busy times. We fog the store every night so we may keep doing that as long as it doesn’t disrupt the customers,” she added.