With Boris back to work and questions on re-opening the nation at the forefront of everyone’s minds, it’s important for retailers to be prepared for the measures that will be required in order to keep customers safe when the doors eventually open again.
For the moment, the most important thing is to follow the government guidelines, but should things change in the coming weeks and months, getting prepared now means you will be ready to open as soon as restrictions are lifted.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has been working alongside the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers to produce guidance on social distancing for non-food retail stores.
The report can be found here https://brc.org.uk/media/674528/social-distancing-stores-v1-april-2020.pdf.
We have produced this blog to summarise those points and to establish what we can do to help your business be as prepared as possible.
Social Distancing | Inside the store
Hygiene and distancing are at the forefront of the BRC’s recommendations some of which include:-
- Provision of cleaning stations at front of store including:
- Hand sanitiser, if available and
- Disinfectant wipes or spray and tissue for trolley/basket handles.
- Use floor markings inside to facilitate compliance with the social distancing advice of 2 metres, particularly in the most crowded areas and where queueing is likely.
- Place clear signage throughout the store reminding customers of the social distancing measures and asking them to follow these rules.
- Review the layout of the store to ensure aisles/walkways are as clear as possible to accommodate 2m social distancing, including the removal of promotional fixtures if necessary.
- Erect physical barriers at till points using flexiplastic to provide a barrier for those working on the tills. These should be included in store cleaning programmes.
It’s important to protect customers coming into the store against cross contamination if / when they might pick up an item that someone else has touched. That’s why the BRC are advising of hand cleaning stations at the front of each store in order to minimise this risk.
We offer a fantastic hand sanitiser station that can hold multiple bottles of sanitiser and is neat and takes up very little floor space. Introducing these into the entrance areas of stores will make it quick and easy for customers to clean their hands before fully entering the store.
Our range of wall mounted frames are a great way to display important social distancing posters to your customers. Rather than a last minute sellotaped poster, our poster frames offer a tidy and professional way to display your announcements, keeping your store clear and professional looking.
Our digital printing service can provide hard wearing floor vinyl’s that can be placed throughout the store to guide customers on their way around, which direction to travel in and to remind of the 2m rule. However, if you have a brand you’ve spent years on perfecting the right look and feel, you won’t want the generic hatched lines and big arrows! With our design service, why not design the floor vinyls to suit your brand aesthetics, so you’ve got the social distancing in place but that co-ordinates to your brand colour scheme and style.
Store layouts are going to be really important in making sure there is enough room to travel round and maintain distancing. If you’ve got clogged shelves, or several small promotional displays, we suggest putting together one main promotional FSDU that can promote your range of items whilst ensuring the footprint is kept to a minimum.
One of the most important, and sought after protection measures at the moment are sneeze screens, or as the Government guidelines calls them “Plexiglass / flexiplastic barriers”.
We have been a specialist in designing and manufacturing these barriers since the business started over 35 years ago, so have one of the most extensive ranges on the market.
Our range of sneeze guards includes many different designs that can be fixed or clamped in place, or provided with or without cutouts to allow items to be passed through whilst still offering great protection. View our entire range here
Alongside our standard range, we can also design and manufacture screens to suit your stores, so if you need something sized to fit into the space between the till and customer, or to cover lottery or tobacco areas, just get in touch and we can design something perfect for your store.
Social Distancing | Outside the store
It’s quite commonplace now to be met with queues outside retail stores that have remained open. The BRC has suggested several recommendations that include:-
- Place clear signage outside of the store explaining the social distancing measures in place that customers should follow.
- Place markings outside the store to assist correct queue spacing.
The 12 recommendations they have set are about maintaining the 2m rule for social distancing and what businesses can do to enforce these.
Our range of outdoor frames are a great way to display these important messages whilst keeping them protected from the elements and tamperproof.
We can also supply a selection of floor vinyls, suitable for use inside or outside the store that can give direction arrows, 2m spacing indications and more.
If you would like any further information about our products, get in touch with the sales team today who will be happy to chat through your requirements with you, 01752 698720 www.luminati.co.uk
