Only 23% of England’s 89,953 known licensed sites were trading again by last Thursday
Britons have flocked to the streets on the first weekend out of a three-month lockdown, but the hospitality sector remains under pressure.
Non-essential stores made total sales of £1.8bn across Saturday and Sunday, though it is still 12% below the same period in 2019, the Centre for Retail Research revealed today.
“The first week provides a really good basis for retail stores to re-establish themselves,” Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the centre, told Proactive.
“Retailers were extremely pleased with that first week as it showed that shoppers were keen to return to shops in spite of all the talk about the onward irresistible march of online shopping.”