Do you think the likes of home bargains/b&m need to close?

[mammamia345]

I don't understand why they are open.
Keep the supermarkets open (obviously ) but the majority of people don't go in home bargains etc for food so just close them.
They don't need to be open.

I don't go to B&M or Home Bargains for a browse, I went to Home Bargains today for bin bags and cat litter-in and out in under 10 minutes, mask on and hand wash when I got home.

Several garden centres near me (Tier 4) have decided to remain closed for the whole of January and have furloughed their staff.

Those shops are cheaper and sell food, toiletries and cleaning materials, of course they shouldn't close, you wouldn't close Aldi and Lidl

I bet you also want places like Screwfix and Wickes closed, these are needed for home maintenance.

If anyone can show valid data that shops are a main area of transmission you might have a point but driving all other shops out of business so the supermarkets have a captive audience is a dangerous economic move imo and could allow them to profiteer.

How would that help the poor?

@Comefromaway

B & M and Home Bargains are both within walking distance of where I live. There is a Sainsbury's but they are very expensive for essential household items. To get to Morrisons or Aldi or Lidl I'd have to drive several miles.

I usually bypass the toy/household tat aisles.

This.

For those who live within easy access of several "proper" supermarkets it's easy to forget that not everyone has that luxury. Somewhere like B&M might be the only practical cheap option.

I’d rather they were open.

My local B&M/Home Bargains/The Range sell lots essential items.

In the 1st lockdown my toilet flush broke, I got the bits I needed to repair it from The Range - it’s my closest shop and I go in there regularly for cleaning/laundry stuff, bin bags, pet food, paracetamol/plasters/first aid stuff.

I drive past these shops fairly regularly and their car parks are always pretty empty at the moment

Home Bargains in my town seems to be where everyone goes for a meet up during restrictions. There's a queue to get into the car park and the aisles are congested by Peggy who has meet Maureen from down the road and they stand together chatting for half an hour.

@jamesfailedmarshmallows

Home Bargains in my town seems to be where everyone goes for a meet up during restrictions. There's a queue to get into the car park and the aisles are congested by Peggy who has meet Maureen from down the road and they stand together chatting for half an hour.

You must spend quite a lot of time there yourself if you can observe Peggy and Maureen chatting for half an hour.

SAme with Boots. I know they are a pharmacy and sell toiletries but it seems a bit unfair to me that they were able to proft from last minute Christmas shopping when no-one else was. Ditto WH Smith - god knows what they sell that is considered essential.

A lot of the locals in my area will be relying on these shops for cheaper food and toiletries.

OP probably wfh and orders from Ocado with an occasional shop at Waitrose like a lot on here

@TheAlphaandtheOmega

OP probably wfh and orders from Ocado with an occasional shop at Waitrose like a lot on here

Yep.

B&M in my small town is the only place to get the right hay as food for the guinea pigs. Otherwise I’d have to drive 20 miles to the hearestpets at home

Bargain stores need to stay open.
Close M&S food halls and posh deli type shops instead... People need cheaper stores more than exclusive ones.
Remember as well... Click&collect and online shopping both rely on access to technology and the knowledge to use it.

Places like B&M and home bargains sell essentials like food, pet supplies, DIY stuff, toiletries, medicine and toiletries, and lots of people rely on those bargain shops to buy the basics.

Why shouldn't they be open?

@DansMaPoche

SAme with Boots. I know they are a pharmacy and sell toiletries but it seems a bit unfair to me that they were able to proft from last minute Christmas shopping when no-one else was. Ditto WH Smith - god knows what they sell that is considered essential.

Newspapers might be essential for those who aren't tech savvy.

@Calmandmeasured1

What about M&S? Fair enough the food halls are open but at my local dept store one (huge) floor selling clothing is open. Due to the one way system they now have the entrance to the food hall via the main dept store. I was astounded on Saturday to see loads of people milling around looking at clothing. There were a number of tills open in the clothing section. I commented to the greeter that I thought it was illegal and she said she thought it was too and didn't agree with it.

The lower floor is ladies'wear. The upper floor has been sealed off but they have brought down all the children's clothes and all the men's clothing that is in the sale as they consider it "essential". It's a total piss-take when other clothing stores are not open because they are not considered essential.

I think B&M and Home bargains have more right to be open than M&S. I see plenty of people buying food and cleaning products in them.

I agree with this - just because a shop sells essential items, they shouldn't be allowed to take the piss.

Another comparison is WH Smiths and Waterstones. WHS can open as it's officially a newsagent and sells a small selection of papers (in comparison to the size of the rest of the shop), but Waterstones can't.

Our local M&S has done the same and has created a ground floor shop where you can buy from any department even though pre-lockdown it only had ladieswear on the ground floor. Initially they did have the clothing sections cordoned off, but that went by the wayside a long time ago.

The only way round it is to stop shops from selling non-essentials, but where do you draw the line on that? If my washing machine breaks and chews up all my pants (random analogy I know!!), I'm going to need some new ones. It's much easier to pop to Asda than wait for an online delivery. Should that be considered essential?

It's very difficult...

Keep them open! I use them for pet food and supplies like bedding and cat litter.

YABVVVVVU They sell food and cleaning supplies etc. If food and cleaning supplies are not essential to you, then you also do not need a supermarket. I buy a lot of my weekly essentials from there as they are cheaper. Why should I pay 2.99£ in the supermarket for a bottle of zoflora when I can pay a 1£ at these sorts of stores

@Kazzyhoward Tesco never stopped anyone from buying sanitary products in Wales. It was bad timing that the store in Cardiff had been broken into and they came in through the roof above this aisle so it was blocked off for safety, the police also confirmed this but it didn't make such a good headline. Things are still blocked off now in supermarkets but we all just order from Amazon instead and make Jeff richer so it's all good and well thought out.

They are basically supermarkets. They sell food, toiletries, home essentials and homewares - exactly the same as Sainsbury’s or Tesco do. And when it comes to keeping garden centres open, quite frankly the U.K. has an unhealthy, overweight population, which is largely to blame for our hospitalisation numbers and deaths. Anything which gets people outdoors rather than cooped up indoors with nowhere to go but the fridge and biscuit tin is a good thing. Outdoor transmission has never been identified as likely.

The rest of the time, MN insists that foodbanks and obesity in the U.K. are the result of people living in poverty in “food deserts” where they can’t possibly go to a supermarket to buy cheap, healthy food and have to rely on places like Home Bargains, Poundland and the local shop for all their grocery needs. You can’t have it both ways: if they were the only places poorer people could shop this time last year then that’s still the case now.

I think all the regular non essential shops should just be open. I went to a few clothes shops when the restrictions where lifted last year and they were practically empty, all it’s doing is destroying what’s left of the high street, meanwhile the supermarkets are making a grand profit on their clothes and other non essential goods. Agree schools, colleges, pubs etc should close.
The whole queuing and limited numbers to get into supermarkets is a joke, once inside you’ve got people breathing down your neck, reaching over you, not wearing masks properly, if at all - most people guilty of this appear to be in their twenties, they can’t all be exempt.
Less shops open means more people crowding into the few that are open.

@mammamia345

I don't understand why they are open. Keep the supermarkets open (obviously ) but the majority of people don't go in home bargains etc for food so just close them. They don't need to be open.

Actually they are an utter disgrace. They just have people pouring in. I dont think they need to close but I do think they need to put restrictions in place.

The Bodyshop was open in our high street with a queue of people outside, I don’t really think they are essential. B&M and Home Bargains should stay open . Some of the non essential stores that are doing click and collect are just encouraging people to go out on unnecessary journeys imo.

Surely we need to keep as many business's open as possible to prevent even more job losses than we already have. The high Street retailers have been decimated over the years and covid has put the final nail in some how many more companies do we let collapse? If the likes of pound land home bargains and b&m close it gives other competitors the opportunity to increase their prices as we'd be restricted as too as how many outlets we can buy from. Not exactly something we want when we are in economic crisis is it. Plus closing stores like that makes the supermarkets even busier at a time we need to social distance more.