Most Waterstones stores across the UK will reopen on Monday.
Waterstones Nottingham said:
‘We’re thrilled to be opening again on Monday the 15th at 10.30! For the rest of the week our opening hours will be 10-5. For information on how we’re keeping our shops safe for booksellers and customers.’
Waterstones West Bridgford has safety measures in place.
A spokesperson for the West Bridgford store said:
‘Many of you have seen us in our shop over the last couple of days, it’s official, we reopen on Monday 15th June with the following revised opening times Mon : 10-5 Tues : 10-5 Weds : 10-5 Thurs : 10-5 Fri : 10-5 Sat : 10-5.’
‘In our shop we have a hand sanitiser station for you to use when entering, a screen at the till, floor markings to help you keep a safe distance from other customers and our booksellers and a browsing trolley for you to put items that you have picked up but don’t want to purchase.’
Safety Signage and Limiting Customer Numbers
For customer guidance toward how to help keep everyone safe, we have installed safety signage throughout every bookshop. This includes instruction around social distancing measures, hand sanitisation stations and directional signage to help manage the flow of customers.
Our bookshops do vary in size and, to help keep everyone safe, some branches may limit the number of customers shopping at any one time. Other factors, such as layout and number of floors, may also play their part in our safety management.
Shop sizes vary of course, meaning the space we have for customers to queue outside varies too. To help guide anyone queuing to enter, our customers will find signage and adhesive floor vinyls to indicate where to stand and at what safe distance, where this is sensible. Some of our shops will also adhere to wider guidelines set by shopping centres or the local council.
Social Distancing, Furniture and Layout
As customers enter our bookshops, signage will request 2m social distancing between our staff and other customers to be observed. Our staff will not hand items directly to you, and we request that at the till, customers hold items barcode uppermost so they can be scanned by a bookseller.
Each shop has completed a review of their furniture placement to ensure adequate space for staff and customers to move around in safety, sometimes using tables and other shop fixtures to act as a natural social distancing support.
Browsing Trollies
As ardent book lovers ourselves, we recognise that our bookshops are places where customers enjoy browsing and that glancing through a book before a purchase is often an integral part of the bookshop experience.
In the event you change your mind, we have installed ‘Browsing Trollies’ – usually positioned next to tills – where customers can safely leave a book or item they have handled and no longer wish to purchase. At the end of each day, stock from our Browsing Trollies will be safely stored away for 72 hours until any threat from coronavirus transmission has been eliminated.
So far as is practicable, we would like our customers to take pleasure in shopping with us as they always have done, and our Book Trolley is simply another way to support safety in our bookshops.
