As we slowly start to ease out of lockdown, the impact of how the retail landscape will be changed, remains to be seen.  Some retail stores are starting their preparations to be ready to open again in England from 15 June 2020, however there are a number of factors that store owners will need to take into account:

How will shopping as we know it, change?

  1. The Government has made clear that social distancing must remain in place for the foreseeable future, maintaining a two metre distance between people. The public are mostly willing to help enforce social distancing by queuing to be allowed entry into the bigger stores (e.g. supermarkets and homeware stores) due to the requirement of basic needs. What remains to be seen, is whether the average shopper will queue merely to visit a store on a casual basis, when they have no guarantee of actually buying an item, and no genuine necessity to do so.

Continue reading at MayerBrown.com

***

 If you wish to receive periodic updates on this or other topics related to UK real estate, subscribe to our Real Estate Insights mailing list.
For any other legal questions related to UK real estate, please get in touch with your usual Mayer Brown contact or one of the blog editors.