Inside JD Sports it prepares to reopen 309 shops with a new shoe fitting policy and strict customer limits
SPORTS fashion retailer JD Sports is gearing up to reopen 309 UK stores from Monday – but only a limited number of shoppers will be allowed in a store at one time.
All non-essential shops have been given the go-head to welcome back customers from next week as long as they’re “COVID-19 secure”.
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The Sun has been given a look inside London’s Oxford Street branch to see how shopping in stores will change once lockdown is lifted.
Customers can expect to queue up before entering stores as the number of people allowed in the store at the same time is capped to help maintain social distancing.
How many are allowed in depends on the size of the store but at the Oxford Street shop its limited to 139 customers.
They’ll still find all of their favourite brands once inside, including Nike, adidas, The North Face, Puma, Under Armour and EA7, but there will be markings on the floor to remind shoppers to stay two metres apart.
Shoe fans will still be able to try on new kicks before purchasing them but they’ll need to ask the dedicated member of staff at a “request station” before putting them on.
They can use the benches in stores one at a time and they now have tape around them as social distancing markers.
The shoes will also have to be sprayed with sanitiser before and after to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
Trying on clothes is out of the question, with fitting rooms remaining closed, and all returned stock will have to be coronavirus.
List of new measures at JD Sports:
SHOPPING at JD Sports won't be the same as it was before lockdown. Here's was has changed:
- Limiting the number of customers in store at any one time
- Member of staff stationed at the entrance to the store to alert customers to the new safety measures
- Social distancing signs placed around the store and a reminder broadcast across the store tannoy every 15 minutes
- Hand sanitiser places at the entrance and outside the lifts and escalators
- Perspex screens at tills, as well as regular cleaning of tills, footwear benches and other busy areas
- Exclusion zone around seating in the footwear department
- “Request stations” where customers can ask staff for shoes
- Returned stock will be separated from new or old stock for 72 hours
- All changing room facilities will remain closed
Chip and pin machines will be cleaned after every use and a £45 contactless limit brought in for card payments, in line with other shops.
Other new features are screens at the tills, hand sanitiser and “plentiful” PPE for staff that want to use it.
JD Sports has also extended its returns policy to 60 days.
Executive chairman Peter Cowgill pledged that the measures – designed to put the customer first – would be “rigorously” enforced.
He said: “The biggest difference will be the limited capacity in store. There will be a concierge on the door to remind people of the 2metre rule and floor markings inside.”
JD Sports staff have received social distancing training ahead of reopening to ensure the best standards, with “dry runs” for how the stores will operate.
Staff have received social distancing training ahead of reopening to ensure the best standards, with “dry runs” for how the stores will operate.
Cowgill pointed to “practical learnings” that the chain had already made from reopening its stores in countries such as Germany, Austria, France, and Belgium.
“We have been living and breathing it for a while now,” he said.
But he admitted that two metre distancing represents a “challenge” for the business because footfall will be lower.
Cowgill said: “I cannot see that two metre will prevail much longer. I would rather have one metre.”
The stores that are to reopen in England are in shopping centres, high streets and retail park locations.
JD Sports also intends to open its high street and “open air” stores in Northern Ireland from June 12 2020, although stores located in shopping centres will remain closed in line with devolved government guidance.
Governments in Scotland and Wales haven’t yet outlined when non-essential stores can welcome back customers but the sports shop plans to re-open all its stores in these countries when restrictions are lifted.
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