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.

it's the competitions/markets law - you can't let a supermarket carry on selling food and making a profit, but not let another retailer sell food and thus deprive them of profit.

Also to protect the public by enabling competition to exist and supply channels to stay open otherwise prices might go up.

There is a case for some places to remain open but not sell non-essential items, but remember when they did that in Wales (people crying on social media that the toy aisle was closed etc). Plus once a shop is open, who decides what is essential. Kitchen roll/firewood/pens etc. So many borderline items.

@Whyistheteacold

You do realise that your chances of getting covid don't increase if you purchase a non-essential item, right? Also I'm presuming that everything you have purchased in a store since March has been an essential item that you absolutely could not be without yes?

You're missing the point. Shops ARE busier because people are spending longer in them and some people are going especially to buy non essential items only. The more people in shops and the longer they are there will increase the risk of increasing the rate of infection.

People need to be in and out quickly for the essentials only.

My SIL doesn’t drive and the only shop in walking distance for her is HB. She uses it for bread, milk, eggs, dried food etc, if they shut she’d struggle or have to use public transport for travel further for shopping.

I bought a new hoover today online. The old one still works, I just wanted a new one so is “non-essential”. Have I inadvertently spread Covid?

[quote mammamia345]@VinylDetective would you be saying the same if you were a business that was forced to close ?
Then you see "Sandra" in b&m buying one of the items you sell ? But you had to close as this item wasn't deemed "essential " enough for your business to remain open.[/quote]
Who the fuck is Sandra - an old person no doubt

B and M are certainly more essential than speciality food shops considering they are the cheapest place to get a lot of genuine essentials. Honestly I wonder if a lot of those calling for them to close have been in a B and M store in the past decade as they are quite deluded when it comes to the typical purchase. I presume all of you wanting them to close also want specialist stores such as butchers and bakeries to close because you can get everything they sell in a supermarket and unlike B and M you cannot get a balanced meal (or anything to do the washing up with) from these stores.

I cannot believe people are back to bickering about whether a candle is essential or not (though we'll probably all be lighting our homes by candlelight by the time this government has finished off every single part of industry/the economy, so maybe that will finally solve the 'candles: essential or not?' problem.

I strongly suspect that shops of any hue are not hotbeds of Covid. Knobbers piling in from ex Tier 3 cities to have a piss up in ex Tier 2 cities are far more problematic than someone buying a pack of clothes pegs in B&M.

@BlueBaubles12

I bought a new hoover today online. The old one still works, I just wanted a new one so is “non-essential”. Have I inadvertently spread Covid?

Yes, you have. When you switch it on, it will puff out all those Covid germs and they will kill everyone within a two-metre radius of your sitting room.

Send it back.

@mammamia345

My point Is if your gonna shut the local furniture shop as it's "not essential" but then allow b&m to still sell flat pack furniture ..it's not right.

The local furniture shop can sell online, offer home delivery or click and collect if they want. Nothing is stopping them from selling and making money.

I fail to understand what funnelling people into an ever reducing number of shops helps the situation

Me neither. Ditto reducing opening hours (other than to let staff restock the shelves without having customers milling about).

Although I don't think we need garden centres open for browsing now - click and collect (or phone and collect) should be adequate for people needing stuff for their gardens.

I think that places such as B+M and garden centres should close.

Buying furniture online is a massive lottery. Which I suppose adds some excitement to life - will this armchair look shit, or just like it does in the photos?

Our local Home Bargain is quite small. Most of what is sells can be classed as essential and I buy a lot of groceries (tins & packets mainly) there as well as toiletries and cleaning products. They are cheaper than the supermarket.
The large B&M nearby though sells all sorts of non essential items and was regularly rammed during the 1st lockdown with people buying all sorts if non essential items and not social distancing even though they'd had to queue to get it. Our nearest Range store has a packed car park every time I drive past - even in the evening. It does have a small (relative to the size of the shop) Iceland store in side but there is another Iceland less than 1/2 mile away - and nearer to the majority of the residential area - and a Tesco Extra opposite the Range, so can't see any reason why the Range needs to open at all - it has become the local leisure activity of the terminally bored!

So I think that the definition of 'essential ' needs looking at and rules changed accordingly if we're to have an effective lockdown (assuming that's what Boris announces this evening!)

Should only be allowed to open food and essential ailses same as supermarkets

They sell food, toiletries, otc medicines and genuine essentials like school supplies, saucepans (handle fell off my frying pan in lockdown 1), lightbulbs. Less than 20% of the store are toys and non essentials (home bargains) and all of those are available in asda etc for sale. It's my nearest shop and saves me driving 7 miles to Asda!

@BlueBaubles12

Buying furniture online is a massive lottery. Which I suppose adds some excitement to life - will this armchair look shit, or just like it does in the photos?

You can always return things you don't like, and I agree it can be a lottery, but I also don't think this is an argument to allow furniture-only shops to open.

Our local bed store did a roaring trade during the last lockdown doing local deliveries and click and collect. They sold beds and bedroom furniture, blankets, pillows and cushions, as well as things like lamps, fairy lights etc.

I think to an extent businesses need to adapt. Even outside of lockdowns, huge amounts of people shop online and it's best to be as diverse in your selling methods as possible. I run a small business and sell online - I do doorstep deliveries to my local area and postal orders further afield.

Choosing only to sell from your shop with no other way for customers to buy from you is something that actively limits your options.

No. Nothing that encourages Covidiots to go 'shopping'.

Supermarkets. (With timed entrance to again make it something people only do if essential )

Chemists for prescription drugs.

Builders merchants for trade customers in case of domestic, plumbing, household emergency.

Garages for petrol /diesel

@caringcarer

Have you lost a loved one recently? Been reduced to standing in a rainy car park waiting because the waiting area was closed, kids having to wee in the bushes because the toilets were closed, loved ones being told they can't say their goodbyes? It's terrible. At 30 at least the close family can attend but we still had those who couldn't due to numbers (many grandchildren and lots of great grandchildren)

The only thing I use B&M for is food and cleaning products. Everything I buy there I do so because it's cheaper than in any of my other local options including the three supermarkets.

Yes definitely garden centres should close ! Around my way they have been teaming with the over 70s... who seem to show little regard for the virus.

No we needs a hydrangea as an essential item .

@Fingfoxes

it's the competitions/markets law - you can't let a supermarket carry on selling food and making a profit, but not let another retailer sell food and thus deprive them of profit.

Also to protect the public by enabling competition to exist and supply channels to stay open otherwise prices might go up.

There is a case for some places to remain open but not sell non-essential items, but remember when they did that in Wales (people crying on social media that the toy aisle was closed etc). Plus once a shop is open, who decides what is essential. Kitchen roll/firewood/pens etc. So many borderline items.

But by that reasoning you can’t let home bargains and the range carry on selling and making a profit on lamps and furniture but shut down the furniture shop and deprive it of profit.

It’s all about keeping people apart and at home as much as possible isn’t it? And it would appear that if there’s a way to go out and browse, people will find it, so the way to prevent that is to only allow shopping for food and other essentials.

Any shop which sells food takes pressure off the supermarkets & their supply chains at a time when much of the hospitality & catering industry is closed. B&M et al should stay open for that reason.

I don't see it as any different than walking around a supermarket.

Lots of people don't have credit cards to buy online or even proper internet access. These shops need to stay open for them.

We can't all Amazon everything we need.

@Hollyhead

I personally think all shops should be open, I don't think they're fuelling transmission in any way and reducing the number open just brings people closer together.

That has to be one of the most 'interesting' comments I've read .

You don't think that perhaps with 'all the shops open' then people would go shopping ? Have a coffee, stopped for some lunch together ? Honestly do you even understand what a virus is ? .. and how it's spread ? No wonder we are in the mess we are if this is a genuine thought process going through a percentage of the population.

@mammamia345

I love home bargains and I love b&m but at the minute you've got people going in and buying a lamp,a coffee table,some 50% off Xmas stuff Cordon off the aisles that aren't food/toiletries/cleaning products

i could go to asda and buy the same items but your not calling on asda to close

HB and B&M are essential to people if they were closed then my shopping cost would be a lot higher having to pay more for the same items in other supermarkets