Penneys in Portlaoise will re-open tomorrow Monday, June 15, and Laois Shopping Centre have set up crowd control measures ahead of the expected queues, similar to what have been witnessed at other stores around the country.
Barriers, similar to what you’d see at big events like Electric Picnic, have been set up outside the main entrance of Laois Shopping Centre as the retail outlet prepares to open again for the first time in three months.
The store will open at 10.30am and the shopping centre management are taking all precautions to assist with social distancing.
The re-opening of Penneys across the country has seen huge queues forming and people waiting for hours. Such was the queue in Limerick last week that the opening time was brought forward.
It’s understood that additional security staff will be used by the shopping centre both inside and outside to ensure social distancing.
The number of people allowed in store at any one time will be limited while Penneys have arranged the store in a different way than previously to allow for more space for customers.
Changing room facilities won’t be available and there will be additional signage and tills open.
Staff will be wearing PPE and, as is normal in shops now, there will be perspex screens at the tills.
Under the original Government plan for reopening the economy, enclosed shopping centres, like Laois Shopping Centre, were not supposed to reopen before August.
However, last week the Government announced a speeding up of the reopening phases, with retail outlets in shopping centres told they could open on June 15, once measures were put in place to make centres safe and prevent people congregating in them.
Essential services like supermarkets and pharmacies in shopping centres were premitted to stay open right throughout the Coronavirus restrictions, meaning that Laois Shopping Centre has been open for the past couple of month but many of the shops within it haven’t.
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