Chains finally u-turn on lockdown opening
November 12, 2020
Carpetright and Tapi have announced a u-turn on opening during lockdown with both chains closing their doors in the face of growing controversy in the trade.
Tapi says "brand new guidance" received has required them to close their doors but announce "we'll bring our store to you" with a home visit service as well as video appointments.
Carpetright continues to run a home page banner on its website saying "stores open during lockdown", but the company's new coronavirus update explains: "We would like to reassure customers that whilst we have now temporarily closed our stores in England, if you need flooring for a current project you may still visit most stores on an appointment-only basis for building services."
The "building services" comment relates to exemptions in the current Government lockdown legislation which states essential retail means: food shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, garden centres, hardware stores, building merchants and off-licences. The building merchants exemption was originally cited by flooring chains as a reason to remain open.
• See updated guidance below.
The moves follow a week of uncertainty since lockdown started on November 5 when the major chains stayed open while independent retailers became increasingly frustrated about the inconsistencies across the sector and the lack of guidance from local trading standards offices who are required to enforce the retail lockdown.
The Carpet Foundation welcomed the news than the chains had closed. "We are delighted to hear this. Whether common sense has prevailed or pressure from outside and above finally got to them we’ll never know, but we stand by our view that the advice we gave our retailers, and which they adhered to, namely that homewares was a non-essential category was true," said the Foundation's spokesman, Rupert Anton.
"The behaviour of some major outlets was morally wrong and their reasons for remaining open were ‘tenuous’ to say the least," he said.
Updated guidance
Overall, it now seems clear that retail stores must close their doors to the public but that the following are OK, with appropriate social distancing, etc:
- Home visits for deliveries and fitting
- Home visits for sales and estimating*
- Selling from the store via video, internet and phone
- Stores visits in person by building trade professionals (but not the general public)
- Receiving deliveries and sending out deliveries to customers' homes
- Warehouse and cutting operations
* Home sales visits
are a little debatable - technically the legislation allows for tradespeople to visit consumers' homes if they cannot perform their job from their own homes (which is clearly the case). Whether sales people are tradespeople is a moot point – but if they are measuring and estimating as well, this activity seems to fall in with the legislation's exemptions and it is clear most chain stores and groups are continuing home sales visits.
The retail lockdown in England is due to end on December 2. Stores in Wales were OK to re-open on Monday and retail in Scotland and Northern Ireland remains open. Non-essential retail in the Republic of Ireland is currently closed.
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