Major coffee chains and food-to-go operators are planning to fit protective screens across their store estates once the UK lockdown ends.
Sneeze guards are set to become commonplace on the high street in the likes of Costa, Starbucks, Subway and Greggs, according to David Dignam, CEO of ITAB UK, which has designed and fitted more than 30,000 screens in Morrisons, Co-op, Waitrose, Tesco, Asda, Iceland and Wilko stores in just two weeks.
Safety measures would likely be in place for some time even after lockdown is lifted, with ITAB in discussions with a number of high street chains, Dignam added.
“Realistically this is going to go on through the summer, and possibly longer, and protective solutions will be something you will be seeing everywhere,” he said. “It is going to become commonplace.”
ITAB is also working with supermarkets to come up with extra screens to separate customers using self-checkouts.
The Sweden-headquartered shop fitting supplier, which has a presence in 30 countries around the world, has also been in discussions with a number of supermarkets about its virtual queueing technology to help manage queues outside stores. Using an app, customers are able to scan a QR code or use a unique phone number to virtually join the queue at stores. Shoppers can then wait in their cars or elsewhere rather than join a physical queue and receive a text message when it is their turn to enter the store.
“Retailers are keen to reduce queues outside their stores as they are worried it turns customers away,” Dignam said. “They see a queue and drive off or leave. And then there is the problem of trying to marshal the queues.”
However, the big supermarkets have told The Grocer virtual queueing systems are unlikely to be implemented because of the complexity in managing large store estates. They added that queueing was not a major problem outside London.
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