Fears intensified today over a spike in coronavirus infections after hundreds of people failed to socially distance at Bicester Village amid its shops reopening following three months shut due to the pandemic.
The upmarket Oxfordshire shopping outlet, which is home to 160 boutique stores and is normally very popular with Chinese tourists, reopened on Monday – but people have been struggling to keep two metres apart.
More than 5,500 people have now signed a petition calling for the owners to close or implement better social distancing measures following a surge in footfall after non-essential stores reopened in England this week.
It comes amid fears the Covid-19 crisis has brought forward the demise of the High Street by up to three years as more people switch to shopping online, with thousands of traditional bricks and mortar stores set to be wiped out.
It comes as:
- The footfall for UK high streets yesterday was down by 55 per cent compared to the same day one year ago;
- Retail analysts believe one in four stores are likely to go by 2021/22, instead of an earlier prediction of 2025;
- The British Retail Consortium says non-food retailers have lost £1.8billion a week in sales in the lockdown;
- Boris Johnson suggested the two-metre social distancing rule could be ditched, saying: ‘Watch this space’;
- A panel reviewing the two-metre rule will report in time for July 4, when pubs and restaurants could reopen.
Upmarket Oxfordshire shopping outlet Bicester Village, which is home to 160 boutique shops, reopened on Monday (above)
Witnesses said there was ‘very little social distancing taking place’ at Bicester Village in Oxfordshire on Monday
Jake Finlay released a vlog via his YouTube Channel, TheFinlayAdventure, showing how busy the shops were on the first day of reopening in Bicester. He said people had been queuing up an hour before stores even opened.
‘There was very little social distancing taking place, and no one enforcing or telling you to do so, and there was nothing there saying to wear a mask,’ he said.
Despite there being temperature checks on the way into the village, Mr Finlay said once inside there was very little enforcement of social distancing.
He said: ‘As a resident of Bicester, and I used to work in Bicester Village, I appreciate it being here and I love the culture it brings to the town and the business it brings.
‘To see it close under these circumstances would be bad, and I don’t really want them to close but they do need to sort these measures out.
‘If they can’t sort it out, then they do need to close it temporarily. Bicester Village is a place that prides itself on its image and wants to be beautiful and pretty and look like a village.
‘And because of that, it has benches and planters in the middle of the street. But actually, they should have taken that away, that would have made more sense and maybe do lanes, as other places have done.’
A Cherwell District Council spokesman said: ‘The council is in conversations with the management at Bicester Village and we also have also had staff on the ground today monitoring the situation.’
Laura Wicks, who authored the petition that has been signed by 5,574 people, wrote: ‘I was disgusted to see the hundreds of people squashed into the street like coronavirus never happened.
‘As a nation, we are all still under the two-metre guidelines and as a company, Bicester Village have a responsibility to keep its staff safe.
‘It is horrendous that the people who work there are being forced into an unsafe environment when so many of them have family at home.’
A Thames Valley Police spokesman tweeted: ‘Queue management at shopping centres would fall to the managing company.
‘Police forces cannot enforce social distancing as it is government guidance, not the law. We would ask everyone to do all they can to stop the spread of coronavirus.’
The owners of Bicester Village have been contacted for comment by MailOnline.
However the outlet’s website asks people to visit during its quieter times, which are weekday mornings from 10am to noon, and evenings from 5pm to 8pm.
It also insists there is a ‘code of conduct asking our guests to respect a two-metre distance’ in the shops and all public areas.
Customers can also sign up to a digital queuing system for some of the stores and book a space, where they will receive a text message with their entry time.
It adds that all customers will have their temperature scanned upon arrival, and hand sanitisers are available throughout the area.
It comes after Boris Johnson and his top scientist last night gave the clearest signal yet that the two-metre rule will soon be ditched. Asked at the daily Downing Street press conference, the Prime Minister said: ‘Watch this space.’
And Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, said the rule was not ‘absolute’ and there were ways it could be changed.
He said the risk of catching coronavirus could be reduced by Britons sitting side by side rather than face to face at work, or by improving ventilation inside. It suggests that if certain other safety measures are put in place, the rule could be reduced to one or 1.5 metres as in other countries.
Yesterday, former Tory Cabinet minister Lord Forsyth said the failure to relax the social-distancing guidance would lead to huge job losses and would ‘hang like an albatross’ on the Government.
At the weekend Downing Street announced the creation of a panel to review the two-metre rule. Economists were invited as well as scientists amid frustration that the Sage committee was not considering the impact of continued lockdown on jobs and businesses.
But speaking in No 10, Sir Patrick suggested that scientists would not oppose a relaxation. ‘Two metres is safer than one metre,’ he said. ‘But it’s not an absolute, it’s a relative, and obviously the closer you get the riskier it is, so it’s a risk assessment… I don’t think two metres is some sort of absolute cut-off that never changes.’
He added that as the incidence rate gets smaller ‘you can start to think about ways in which you can manage the distance in certain circumstances in different ways’. Mr Johnson said: ‘We are keeping it under constant review… Watch this space because we absolutely hear you.’
Downing Street has said the panel would report in time for July 4, the earliest date for the reopening of pubs and restaurants.
The impact of the virus lockdown has accelerated a switch to online shopping for everything from fashions and furniture to groceries.
At the same time, those running retail outlets have suffered the punishing impact of business rates, rents and staff costs that are not faced by web giants operating from vast warehouses, increasingly run by robots.
The government has offered temporary relief on business rates and staff costs, through the furlough scheme, however this will not offer a solution in the long term.
The British Retail Consortium has suggested that non-food retailers have lost £1.8billion a week in sales during the lockdown.
This blow came at a time when many famous names were already fighting for survival.
Debenhams has revealed that 20 or its departments stores will never re-open, while many others are closing outlets.
The fast fashion retailer Quiz is closing 11 stores permanently, while Victoria’s Secret and Monsoon Accessorize recently went into administration.
Separately, many chains, such as New Look and T.M. Lewin, are in talks with landlords designed to get rent reductions needed to allow stores to stay open.
The UK head of retail at KPMG, Paul Martin, said: ‘Store re-openings are likely to be a gradual affair, with the safety of workers and consumers placed front of mind.
‘Some stores may not even reopen at all, as retailers reassess which sites are most commercially viable for them to continue operating. We’ll also likely see a flurry of retail casualties in the coming weeks and months too, especially with quarterly rent on commercial property due on June 24.
There are concerns that the busy streets in Bicester (above, on Monday) will cause a spike in Covid-19 infections
More than 5,500 people have signed a petition calling for Bicester Village to close or implement better social distancing
Shoppers arrived at Bicester Village on Monday after non-essential stores across England were allowed to reopen
‘In the context of store re-openings, we have to remember that customer footfall plays a key role in determining the success of stores, and without the added traffic from workers popping in during their lunchbreak, or consumers socialising nearby, customer numbers are likely to remain low in the short- to medium-term.
Bicester Village’s website asks people to visit during its quieter times, which are weekday mornings from 10am to noon, and evenings from 5pm to 8pm.
‘Without a vaccine, many shoppers will still remain cautious, continuing to log-on rather than hit the high street. What’s more, the experience they once sought isn’t likely to be the same currently, with obvious issues around trying items on for size or controlling crowd numbers, for example.’
Looking ahead, he is expecting major sales in the coming weeks.
‘There is no denying that many retailers will now be sitting on surplus stock, especially if we’re referring to categories that have been largely overlooked during lockdown – especially fashion.
‘Retailers may well be tempted to aggressively discount in order to get stock moving again, but they need to avoid putting their margins under further pressure,’ he said.
‘Stores may well have the green light to reopen, but the consumer landscape has undoubtedly changed significantly in light of COVID-19. In many ways, we’ll see an acceleration of the changes that were already underway.
‘The change in consumer behaviour meant that retailers were likely to lose 25 per cent of their physical presence by 2025. That’s now likely to be a reality by 2022/23.
Laura Wicks, who authored the petition, wrote: ‘I was disgusted to see the hundreds of people squashed into the street’
Bicester Village has issued this guidance on its website for people planning to visit the site in Oxfordshire
Week-on-week footfall was significantly up on Monday as non-essential stores reopened, but it was still down year-on-year
‘The rise in online transactions – currently accounting for more than 60 per cent of non-food sales – means that the channel will likely continue to be more prominent.
‘That will mean less demand for physical stores, and with it regrettably less demand for staff on the ground.
‘Fundamentally, retailers aren’t just thinking about opening their front doors, they’re thinking about whether their business model and proposition is still valid; whether their customers still consider them relevant; and whether they have the resources at hand to recover and accept the environment in which they now operate,’ he added.
Independent retail analyst, Richard Hyman, confirmed the bleak outlook, but said it is not the end of the high street. ‘For quite some time it’s going to be awful,’ he said.
Debenhams on Oxford Street in London is pictured today with it due to open its doors for the first time since lockdown
Staff wearing face shields arrange queuing rope outside Debenhams on Oxford Street in London today before the shop opens
Staff wearing PPE face shields prepare the window display at Debenhams on Oxford Street in London this morning
‘Shops cannot possibly make money with vastly reduced sales volumes. They will certainly launch massive discount sales but they will not make a huge difference to shopper numbers, because they can’t.
‘So the financial implications are dire. We will certainly see many more casualties. And inevitably, significant losses too. With 8.9 million on furlough the big question is, how many will have a job to return to?’
Mr Hyman said that although it was not ‘the end of the High Street’, the pandemic would ‘spark a cull of shops’.
‘Covid-19 has turbo charged online share of sales and large numbers of stores will be forced out of the market because there simply won’t be sufficient demand for them to live off. So fewer, smaller high streets.
‘It’s pointless sugar coating when people need the truth in order to manage accordingly,’ he said.