Scottish bookshops to reopen on 29th June

Scottish bookshops will be able to reopen from 29th June as lockdown eases, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced.

Shops of any size will be allowed to raise their shutters as long as they have outdoor entrances and exits, meaning stories within shopping centres must stay closed for now. Retailers will also need make their shops Covid-19 secure, including ensuring customers can remain two metres apart.

Sturgeon said: “When shops do reopen, I ask everyone to exercise patience, stick to the measures that are in place for your safety and at all times please respect retail staff who will be asking you to shop in a different way."

Waterstones confirmed it would be reopening its high street branches on 29th June following the announcement. A spokesperson said: "We were delighted to hear the news and we are well prepared to safely open our High Street shops in Scotland on the 29th June, with indoor shopping centre shops to follow as soon as permitted. The safety of our booksellers and customers remains paramount and, as we did in England, we will reopen cautiously, ensuring all health and safety measures are fully implemented before opening our doors. We are very much looking forward to welcoming our customers back into our Scottish shops."

Ellen Wilson, who has just taken over as manager of Golden Hare Books in Edinburgh, said she was pleased with the news and planned to reopen on 29th June. She said: "I am exhausted, as I expect most other shopkeepers are by now, but this news has perked me up and means I can begin thinking about taking staff off furlough.”

She added: “We are currently re-stocking the shop, preparing signs regarding social distancing, getting our staff PPE ready, with hand sanitiser at the door and throughout the shop too.

“After reopening we will have no more than three customers in the shop at once and only one staff member until government advice regarding social distancing changes.”

Edinburgh Bookshop manager Marie Moser closed her store slightly ahead of the government order in March and stayed closed for eight weeks until Gardners was back up and running, reopening for click and collect on 18th May. The orders have helped the shop keep going with about two-thirds of its normal business.

Because the shop is still set up for click and collect, it will take a few days to rejig the layout, so Moser said she was relieved to have a week's breathing space before full reopening.

She said: “In some ways it feels a wise decision that she's left it another week although I know some people will be very frustrated, it just depends where you are personally.”

Social distancing measures would be “tricky” she said, although the shop already has screens and a kit from the Booksellers Association. A one way system is likely to be introduced in the store, with numbers kept down to four or five customers at a time.

Moser said: “The good thing is Waitrose, B&Q, everybody have at least instigated the principle of all this already so we would hope that it's not going to be a quantum leap for people. The biggest challenge for us is half our business is children and I think we're going to have to say 'one family with kids at any time'.”

Rosamund de la Hey, of Mainstreet Trading in St Boswells, Melrose, said online trading had gone well from a “standing start” and her store has branched out into “care packs” of books and chocolate, alongside books subscriptions including a recent “diverse voices” offer.

She said of reopening physically: “I'm nervous in the sense of seeing how the flow of customers goes but also how the switch works between sustaining the website and keeping going with that and also embracing the new normal of browsing and so on.”

“I think a lot of customers will still be isolating and will want to be supported in that,” she said. “The next three weeks will be quite challenging just in terms of the juggle and seeing how that works and also workign out how many staff to bring back from furlough. Furlough going to part time is crucial as far as we're concerned because it gives us the flexibility we need to test the water. We're going to start back doing, we think, four days a week with short hours with the cafe very much takeaway only and then just building as we see the demand.”

Bookshops in England reopened on Monday (15th June), and in Ireland on 8th June.