Ikea reopens Greenwich store on 1st June
Ikea have announced they will reopen their Greenwich branch on 1st June.
Opening hours will be reduced as will car parking spaces. The company state opening hours will be:
Mon-Sat: 10.00-20.00
Sun: 11.00-17.00
Stores in Scotland and Wales will remain shut.
They also revealed these measures to be put in place upon opening:
- Limited numbers of customers in store at any one time and wherever possible, customers are encouraged to shop alone, in line with Government guidance. Where this isn’t possible, groups will be limited to one adult and one child and a staggered entry system will be in place
- Restricted car parking as well as car park management, security in place and a system for closing off access if full
- Social Distance Wardens throughout the store to help customers find their way round the new one-way system and ensure new social distancing measures are being observed
- Reduced shopping hours
- Additional hand sanitiser facilities and more frequent deep cleaning routines for bags, trolleys, bathrooms, rest areas, equipment and touchscreens
- Screens in key areas – such as checkouts, service points, planning areas, customer returns - to enable social distancing
- Appointment-only system for in-store planning services, with remote planning encouraged
- Cashless payments only – by card and contactless
- Click and Collect will operate as contactless
- All play areas will remain closed, as will our restaurant
- The Bistro will operate a contact-free takeaway service and will be open with enhanced safety measures in place, including: two-metre distancing, screens, cashless payments only, and deeper and more frequent cleaning routines
Around a third of customers who visited the branch before closure used public transport. How that plays out will be interesting. More in cars? Some trying to board buses with flat pack boxes?
Looking forward to this as I need several pieces of furniture. I don’t expect to be able to get in the store during the first week of re-opening even though I can do a weekday, but it will get better.
I agree i think the first week or so will be manic then it will start to get better over time.
I am going to be a little controversial now and say we should start to look again at Sunday trading hours so shops can possible open longer on a Sunday. Also to look at the opening hours for some inside shopping centres to see if these can open longer in the evenings and on Sundays to aid social distancing in the future
As this will give shoppers more time to shop over the day and on Sundays which will mean people are not all crowding in the shops at the same time which happens when shopping hours are resticted like on Sundays.
The stores will love it. The shop workers won’t. If IKEA are like the supermarkets, the workers are not paid any extra for weekend/evening/bank holiday work.Haven’t they got enough on their plates aready?
You are not the only one calling for the revision of Sunday trading laws and in the face of Covid-19, there may be a case to be made but I argue that 10:00 to 18:00 is enough time in which to do shopping. I go early to avoid the crowds that tend to appear mid-morning.
IKEA is a pretty good place to work. Every shop based employee is paid the living wage (£10.75 per hour in London and £9.30 in the rest of the UK). There are also other benefits. I don’t think the average IKEA worker has many complaints.
I took a chance and went to IKEA today. There was no enormous queue and it was more like a weekday morning in normal times. However, neither of the items I had previously seen was in stock. I might suck it up and get another colour rather than wait for restocking.