Coronavirus: Selfridges and Harrods cut opening hours
Luxury department stores Harrods and Selfridges have scaled back their opening hours in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Selfridges said it will be open between 11am and 7pm Monday to Saturday at its London, Birmingham and Manchester stores. Sunday trading hours will remain the same.
Meanwhile Harrods announced that from today it will reduce its hours from 10am – 9pm, to 11am-7pm. The Knightsbridge store also said it has cancelled beauty masterclass events and removed make-up testers for hygiene reasons.
In a statement posted on its website this morning Harrods said: “First and foremost, Harrods is an employer of almost 5,000 colleagues, and our primary consideration is to ensure the health and wellbeing of both employees and customers.
“All the decisions we have made, and continue to make, are guided by Public Health England and government advice.
“This includes guidance on keeping employees and customers safe – such as increasing our cleaning and sanitation procedures across the store and support areas – as well as information available to employees on maintaining their own health.”
The action comes after the prime minister yesterday urged the public to practice social distancing to delay the spread of coronavirus.
Boris Johnson did not directly mention retailers, but he said people should not visit pubs, restaurants and theatres and should limit social interactions.