NWN-18062020

Thursday, June 18, 2020 22

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Thousands of non-essential retail businesses such as clothes andhomeware shops across Englandhave taken advantage of the opportunity to reopen tomembers of the public sinceMonday, June 15. Some shops and retailerswere able toprovide anonline service during the closures tohelp tackle coronavirus. However, manywereunable todo so. Retailers have nowused the comprehensiveUKGovernment guidancemade available tohelphigh street businesses prepare to reopen their doors in away that is safe for their employees and customers, such as ensuring social distancing. Today, we look atwhat measures are inplace tomake it safe for customers to visit reopenedbusinesses.

“We have accessed the Job Retention Scheme as it was impossible to offer work to our staff in the circumstances. “The scheme enabled us to keep all staff on the payroll, something we would not have been able to dowithout it. “Our three baristas remain on the furlough scheme until it is safe to reopen at our full capacity. “We have also accessed the Retail andHospitality grant whichwill help us with our lease payments and overheads.” You can find out more about Blend Coffee Co at www. blendcoffeeco.com, Facebook. com/ BlendBrighton, Instagram.com/ BlendBrighton and Twitter. com/BlendBrighton

once their order is ready, the customer can safely collect fromthe collection point. Q Only accepting card payments. Q New cleaning schedules of the premises and all areas which come into contact with both customers and staff. Q Pre and post-shift cleaning. Oli and Tomsaid: “This planwas

was ready to be reopenedwe implemented a number of safer workingmeasures.” These newmeasures include: Q A deep clean of the shop prior to reopening. Q Implementation of a new ordering layout. Q A newpolicy stipulating zero customers inside the store. Q The till system has beenmoved to the front of the shop, with orders automatically being sent to the back of the house for preparation. Q A new collection process whichmeans customers will be a safe distance away (behind signage) whilst ordering. There is awaiting area outside which adheres to social distancing, and

BLENDCOFFEE Co directors Oli Crawley and TomJennion have taken steps to allow themto safely reopen their independent coffee shop at Portslade in Sussex. They have implemented a series of measures based on UKGovernment advice so they could reopen safely for both staff and customers. They said: “Blend Coffee Co has two directors, and we employ a further three members of full-time and part-time baristas. “Only the directors have returned towork to alleviate any pressure on our barista team feeling they need to work; this also allows an operational analysis of all our newprotocols to ensure they are efficient and safe. “Our primary concern is to keep people safe, so to make sure our coffee shop

developed after we undertook a risk assessment and analysis of the premises to ensure that customer-staff

interaction could be maintained and sustained in a safemanner. “We ran a test prior to reopening to ensure that our newmeasures would work and allowus and our customers to stay safe.

SAFE REOPENING: Blend Coffee Co directors Oli Crawley and Tom Jennion.

The latest steps to SHOPS SUCH as supermarkets and pharmacies have been trading responsibly throughout the pandemic. Building on this, reopening The UKGovernment is taking action to help businesses reopen and protect their staff and customers, including publishing updated COVID- secure guidelines for people whowork in or run shops, branches, and stores after consultationwith businesses, union leaders, Public Health

non-essential retail is the next step towards restoring people’s livelihoods. Shops can only reopen once they have completed a risk assessment, in consultationwith trade union representatives or workers, and are confident they aremanaging the risks.

England and the Health and Safety Executive. The updated guidance takes into account the best practice demonstrated by themany retailers which have been