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After months of feeling trapped at home, thousands of Brits flooded back to the shops this week – whether to high street giants like Primark or the designer outlets of Bicester Village – for the first time since the beginning of lockdown.
Many non-essential shops, department stores, homeware retailers, and charity shops reopened on Monday June 15, with prime minister Boris Johnson telling the nation: “People should shop, and shop with confidence.”
Most of us have known the joy of a Saturday spree – or even just a browse – with family or friends. Shopping becomes a leisure activity at the weekend.
Or it used to be. The coronavirus pandemic has permanently changed the way we shop, retailers are signalling – with a focus on locality, more home deliveries, and a shift in habits towards more sustainable ways.
Locktown hasn’t curbed our appetite for retail therapy. In fact, we’re shopping online more than ever. But as physical shops re-open with social distancing measures in place – from extra hygiene to closed-off fitting rooms and a limit on crowds – will shopping ever be the same again?
Online vs. offline
For some buying stuff on the internet during the height of lockdown was a vital lifeline, while it forced others who had never shopped online to give it a try – though the closure of physical shops hit hardest those brands that had failed to keep up with the digital age and weren’t ready for the online hordes.
Online shopping might be quick, convenient, and offer shoppers the ability to purchase a brand-new outfit delivered straight to their door at a click of a button, but it does lacks the human interaction and in-store experience.
Theresa Marie Coles, 30, a full-time mother from Tamworth in the West Midlands, has saved up some money from being stuck indoors and can’t wait to hit the shops this weekend. “I usually prefer shopping in person rather than online, as I don’t really like the hassle of having to return items,” she says. “There’s something about shopping that I find therapeutic. Finding something I’ve been looking for or finding a bargain is my biggest thrill!”
Besides the advantages of being able to touch, feel and try before you buy, shopping in-person can also double up as a social occasion and an opportunity to catch up with friends. “I meet up with my best friend to shop together and we usually make a day of it,” Coles adds. “A good drive out to somewhere new and spend the whole day browsing and drinking coffee.”
In favour of the small and local
As we ease out of lockdown, there’ll be people in two different camps: the people who will think twice about shopping and those desperate to get out to splash some cash.
“The pandemic has been horrific obviously and I did close for three months, but reopening was wonderful because my regular customers couldn’t wait for me to open again,” says Karen Hall, owner of Karen George, a small womenswear clothing boutique based in Emsworth that reopened this week. “I have an older clientele and for that particular age group, they’re anxious about shopping. They’d be worried about going to bigger shops like Primark where there are lots of people and long queues.”
This ‘new normal’ could potentially spark a revival and a greater interest in the small, independent businesses, as people avoid the crowds and shop for the less generic. As a conscious shopper, media consultant Andy Jones, 36, from north London opts for look, feel, and quality over quantity and price.
“You can’t always tell what you’re going to get from buying online,” he says. “Everyone’s got less money in a recession and with more time on our hands, you make more considered purchases. People are starting to care more about the value of where it comes from, stuff that’ll last, and whether it was sustainably made.”
The re-imagined shopping experience
As someshoppers return with three months of pent-up spending energy, retailers are adapting by taking the necessary precautions including plastic screens at the tills and floor markings to keep shoppers two metres apart.
Clothes shops big and small plan to use steamers to clean clothes between customers. John Lewis is reopening stores, but without their changing rooms for now – and is also floating a 72-hour quarantine for clothes touched or returned by customers before they go back on the shop floor.
Waterstones is doing similar, asking customers to put books back on to a trolley, after which they will be quarantined for three days. It all makes browsing, one of the joys of the weekend shopping trip, a little more fraught for sure.
Not all shops will even raise their shutters from the get-go. The reopening is going to be a gradual process, but for many, it’s an important opportunity to welcome spending customers back in store.
“I was actually really excited to go back –– it was almost like my first day of business again,” admits Karen Hall. “Although, I was a bit apprehensive because I wonder whether I’m going to be busy or completely dead.”
Even though there’s been a spike in our shopping habits, according to a study compiled by SumUp, a contactless payment system, “shoppers are keeping their cash despite being able to buy clothing online with Europe and UK.” The clothing sector is one of the worst-hit and has seen “a drop by as much as 90%.”
Many people are eschewing non-essential items – if we can’t wear them out, we won’t invest. “As far as income is concerned, I’ve had to watch my bank balance every day because what I stock is seasonal,” Hall explains. “So, if people aren’t holidaying and going on cruises, they’re probably not going to bother to update their wardrobe, because they can’t go anywhere.”
Change is scary, and only time will tell if our Saturdays will go back to how things were. “I don’t think the shopping experience will be ruined, it will just be different for a while,” Coles says. “It’s a new way of life for the time being and if everyone sticks to the guidelines we should all manage just fine.”