High streets in Tier Four face a £7billion nightmare after having to suddenly pull down the shutters at the busiest time of the year.
The huge sum could be lost in takings for the Christmas week through to the Boxing Day and January sales after new Covid restrictions were imposed.
It is feared thousands of stores ordered to close will never re-open, putting many thousands out of work.
The closure of non-essential shops, gyms, hairdressers, nail bars and department stores in London and the South East at midnight on Saturday after just a few hours’ notice has been a hammer blow.
Rebecca Saunders had her best ever sales day in store on Saturday.
Shoppers were flocking to the entrepreneur’s beauty outlet in Richmond, southwest London, and it felt like a moment of hope after a terrible year.
But as closing time approached, that sense of optimism was snuffed out - and replaced by fears of yet more hardship ahead.
“It is so devastating to have to miss five crucial days of Christmas trading,” says Saunders, a former beauty buyer at John Lewis, who decided to strike out on her own just over a year ago.
Since she opened her first store, called Seekology, which sells dozens of independent beauty and wellbeing brands, the entrepreneur has had to navigate the choppy waters of temporary closures for “non-essential” shopkeepers, as well as trying to get her business off the ground.
Supermarkets urge shoppers not to panic buy after Christmas bubbles collapse
The British Retail Consortium urged people to shop responsibly while supermarkets reassured consumers they will not run out of food
Shoppers queue outside a Sainsbury s supermarket earlier this year
Supermarkets have urged shoppers not to panic buy as they braced themselves for people who had previously planned to travel for Christmas now rushing to fill up empty cupboards.
With most online booking delivery slots fully booked there are fears the movement of London and the South East into Tier 4 could spark panic buying, with thousands now having to shop for Christmas who were previously relying on visiting relatives.
Thousands of presents remain buried in mountains of post bags at sorting offices, it has been revealed.
One image posted on Twitter displayed the huge pile of Royal Mail sacks in Bristol.
A second showed that sorting offices are so inundated that staff are having to stack items outside, putting parcels at risk of being damaged by rain or even stolen.
Union bosses are reporting similar scenes across the country and have described the Christmas delivery chaos as a nightmare after businesses complained parcels were taking up to a month to arrive.
A massive switch to online shopping means there are an estimated 200million more parcels in the postal and courier system this year. Online orders are expected to be up by more than 50 per cent as internet festive shopping overtakes the high street for the first time.
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