Knaresborough was busy this afternoon as shops opened their doors for the first time since lockdown.
Shop owners were feeling optimistic as they took their first tentative steps to reopening.The town’s independent shops were hopeful for a sense of normality to follow their reopening.
All of the shops had safety measures- each had its own measures in place including cleaning stations and one-way systems.
Jordan Thompson owns women’s clothing store Harriet’s in Knaresborough, the store is operating at a maximum of three customers in the store at a time. She told us:
“I’m feeling excited and a little anxious today, but we’ve already had a few customers come in and purchase items. We have to get back to some kind of normality, although it’s going to be a change in normality with the gloves and masks and social distancing, we still need to get back to some sort of normality.”
Martin Sturdey, the owner of Zigzag, a cards and gifts shop in Knaresborough, said:
“We’ll probably have quite a good few days and then it’ll tail off and then build up again, its just difficult to predict. The good thing about Knaresborough is theres lot of independent stores and people want to support us. All we can do is take all the precautions and see what footfall is like. I think it’s going to take the rest of the year to slowly pick up as people gain confidence and return.”
Stations such as these are present in many of the shops in Knaresborough to encourage customer safety.
Read more:
- Sports Direct opened its doors this morning to huge queues of keen shoppers.
- Take a look at our list of shops that are reopening this week near you.
Knaresborough town centre didn’t see the queues that other towns across the country did, but many shoppers still came out to browse. One happy shopper told The Stray Ferret of her experiences, Linda Humphrey said:
“I feel confident in shopping again today, I’m being sensible I have my mask and sanitiser with me. There’s been no problems in the shops I’ve been to, everybody is doing what they should be. I’m doing my dads shopping today and I’ve had no issues today or when I’ve been in previous weeks. I’m glad it’s like this again.”
