The good people at Greggs have confirmed that our favourite bakery will reopen 800 of its stores on Thursday.
In line with the chain's plan to carry out a phased re-opening, it's been confirmed that it will open some of its stores on Thursday 18 June, before the others open in early July.
Team members are being trained in all of the protective measures that are being introduced, which include some of the things we're getting used to seeing, including floor markings and signs for social distancing, protective screens at counters, hand sanitiser being available and encouragement of contactless payment.
Greggs has also introduced a one-way system to help ensure social distancing. Only one adult per household will be permitted to enter the shop at a time to join a social distanced queue, and there will be a reduced number of colleagues behind the tills.
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All shop teams will be provided with protective workwear, including face masks, visors and gloves.
Reps for the store have also confirmed that there will be a reduced menu, like we've seen in other fast food and takeaway restaurants, but it seems to have most of the favourites, including the main baked savoury and sweet treats, as well as a selection of sandwiches and breakfast items (yes, the vegan sausage roll is on there).
Greggs CEO, Roger Whitesaid said: "Looking forward, although great uncertainty remains, we are excited to be resuming our service for many customers this week.
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"We are confident of our ability to adapt to market conditions in the short term while continuing to invest in the long-term growth of our business. I want to thank all of our 25,000 colleagues for their support in getting us to this point."
Trials were carried out on a small number of stores in the north east back in May, after the reopening of Greggs for takeaway was pushed back.
Original plans to reopen were postponed once Greggs realised how many customers could potentially show up at the stores.
The bakery was due to reopen some of the branches on 4 May but a statement was issued saying: "Due to significant interest in our 20-shop trial, and the risk that excessive numbers of customers may plan to visit Greggs, we will now initially operate these trials behind closed doors in order to effectively test our new operational safety measures.
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"We will continue to review this and will invite walk-in customers into our shops only when we can be confident of doing so in the controlled manner we intended."
Greggs announced that all of their 2,050 stores would close on 24 March, when the UK government imposed a nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
You can find a list of all stores set to reopen this Thursday here.
Featured Image Credit: GreggsTopics: Greggs