Large Queues At Hardware Stores Around the City For Re-Opening Rush

Customers have been queuing outside major hardware stores around the city since the early hours of this morning.

DIY shops, garden centres and hardware stores are just some of the outlets reopening today as part of Phase One of the roadmap for easing restrictions.

Car and bike repair shops, office suppliers and electrical stores are also reopening along with construction sites around the city.

Woodies DIY Chairman Declan Ronayne said they have systems ready to prevent stores becoming overrun with people.

“People don’t mind queueing because shopping is not a past-time anymore; people are a little bit nervous about it and they want to get in and out safely.

“So, we have queue management system in place and our shops will not be overrun with people because, and this is extraordinary for retailers, we are not letting people in.

“It is not about the number of people you have in; it is about the congestion you can potentially get at the checkout.”

A staff-member at Woodie’s DIY in Bray, County Wicklow, 18-05-2020. Image: Kyran O”Brien Photography/kobpix

Woodies said it has spent over €500,000 on safety measures in preparation for reopening – with sanitations stations at the front of every store, perspex screens at checkouts and staff kitted out in face shields, masks and t-shirts reminding everyone to stay 2 metres apart.

Meanwhile, constructions industry representatives insist they are taking the health and safety rules very seriously as thousands of workers return on-site this morning.

Tom Parlon, Director General of the Construction Industry Federation, said a lot of effort has gone into planning for reopening.

“This national return safely to work, it is a collaborative effort between the HSA, the HSE, the Department of Health; there has been big collaboration between the trade unions and the employer representatives – I have been in all those meetings myself.

“So, the construction industry and all our members are taking this extremely seriously.”

All businesses must follow the national Return to Work Safely Protocol as they reopen, with the Health and Safety Authority handed powers to close outlets that repeatedly fail to put the protections in place.