John Lewis & Partners announce further ten shop reopenings including shops in Scotland and Wales

Wednesday 1 July 2020

John Lewis has today announced plans to reopen a further ten shops, including shops in Scotland and Wales. 

On Monday 13 July, John Lewis shops in Basingstoke, Cardiff, Chelmsford, Chester, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Stratford and the Trafford Centre will reopen.  Given the size and scale of the shop, Oxford Street will also open later in the week on Thursday 16th July to allow the shop additional time to finalise reopening.  This will take the total number of shops that have so far reopened following the easing of the lockdown to 32, with plans for further shops to reopen later in the summer. 

Bérangère Michel, Executive Director for Customer Service at the John Lewis Partnership said; “I am really pleased to announce more shop openings in the next couple of weeks, and in particular our first to reopen in Wales and Scotland. 

“We continue to stick to our safe, not fast approach. We are learning as we go and tweaking our approach to give our customers and Partners the best possible experience. 

“Feedback from customers is that they really enjoy being able to test and try out products such as tablets, mattresses and shoes, all in a safe environment, as well as asking our expert Partners for advice.”

Key social distancing measures in John Lewis shops include:

• “Customer Service Hosts” assigned to welcome customers into the store and answer any questions while managing customer numbers, queues both at entrances and busy areas of the shop   
• Reduction in the number of shop entrances and exits
• Caps on the number of customers entering stores
• Prominent social distancing signage
• Protective screens at checkouts and areas of the shop where social distancing cannot be achieved between customers and Partners such as ‘Welcome desks’
• Procedures for escalators and lifts limiting the number of users
• Rigorous and frequent cleaning
• Provision of hand sanitiser for customers to use at all entrances and throughout shops
• Social distancing in back of house areas
• New contactless payment limit of £45
• Limiting additional customer services - for example close-contact beauty services will not be offered.  Fitting rooms will remain closed until further notice. Some third party catering outlets will be open - but we will open our own Place to Eat and cafes at a later date.  Customers can still get all the usual support and advice at the experience, customer support and welcome desks.
• Safe and simple returns process including new drop boxes and quarantining returned stock for 48hrs

About the John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership owns and operates two of Britain's best-loved retail brands - John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners. Started as a radical idea nearly a century ago, the Partnership is the largest employee-owned business in the UK and amongst the largest in the world, with over 80,000 employees who are all Partners in the business. For all intents and purposes, the Partnership is a social enterprise; the profits made are reinvested into the business - for customers and Partners. John Lewis & Partners operates 50 shops across the UK (36 department stores, 12 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2) as well as johnlewis.com. Waitrose & Partners has 338 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 61 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. Waitrose & Partners exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide and has nine shops which operate under licence in the Middle East. The retailer's omnichannel business includes the online grocery service, Waitrose.com, as well as specialist online shops including waitrosecellar.com for wine and waitroseflorist.com for plants and flowers. Our food business is bigger than our non-food business and our John Lewis shop sales represent less than a quarter of the Partnership’s total revenue.