Queues in Oxford Street, as lockdown ends and shops reopen

Londoners have formed long queues outside shops in Oxford Street, as shops reopened after the end of national lockdown.

Lockdown is officially over and all UK is now under a tiering system. Most of England is on Tier 2 or Tier 3, the tighter ones that restrict social contacts to ‘bubbles’, although it allows shops to reopen. Londoners had probably been waiting long for this “Wild Wednesday”, as they began forming very long queues outside shops since early in the morning around 7 am.

Long queues in London as shops reopen

It has been called the “Wild Wednesday” and is the first Wednesday after the end of the second national lockdown and the start of the tiering system, which means shops were able to reopen. Londoners formed long queues outside shops in Oxford Street, where people especially targeted Primark. The retailer managed to reduce queues after announcing 11 stores would be open for 24 hours on December 2. People also formed queues outside Nike Town, Footlocker and many others.

Shops are applying new measures to limit the number of people inside and have set up hand sanitiser stations as well as carrying out deep cleaning. Primark owner, the Associated British Foods (ABF) temporarily had to shut 57% of its total selling space, counting an estimated loss of £375 million.

Only this week, Debenhams announced the closure of 124 shops and Arcadia, owner of Topshop, also had to declare a massive staff cut. 13,000 Arcadia employees are still waiting to know what the future will be after the business fell into administration. The Arcadia Group includes famous brands like Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burton.

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