It was the morning after the day before and Nottingham looked markedly different to the scenes reported yesterday (June 15) when shoppers excitedly rushed back to the city centre to enjoy its retail resurrection.
Little over 24 hours since non-essential shops could reopen their doors for the first time in 12 weeks the lengthy queues and bustling crowds were no where to be seen - although there was still a buzz about town and it was by no means as quiet as it had been these last three months.
Yesterday scores of bargain-hunters lined up at Primark's doors with some arriving two hours before opening time to secure the coveted first through the doors spot. At around 10am the queue had been broken in two with those at the back being asked to wait in Old Market Square so as not to block pedestrians from using Long Row.
Today, at the same time, it was a case of walking straight in, after a compulsory squirt of hand sanitiser from the store's touch-free dispensers at the entrance.
A staff member remains at the doors to monitor capacity and the queue and pavement stickers still mark out standing spots for those in line, placed two metres apart.
There is only a one way system in as much as there is a set of doors for entering the store and a separate set for leaving but inside social distancing didn't seem to be a problem for shoppers at all.
Everyone was overly polite in keeping two metres apart as best they could and when a handful of shoppers arrived at the escalators at the same time people patiently waited their turn leaving a few seconds before stepping on.
Not all areas have reopened with the sitting/waiting area, the changing rooms, Costa, and the beauty parlour all still closed to customers. Bright blue signs are dotted around reminding customers of the rules inside while markers on the floor serve as a mental nudge to keep two metres apart. There are no samples for make up products and staff can be seen cleaning down surfaces throughout the store.
Around 50 percent of shoppers inside seemed to be wearing face masks and there didn't seem to be any groups larger than three people.
The queue for the tills was also pleasingly short for a Primark line with only half a dozen people at the main checkouts downstairs.
Some areas did seem to be busier than others and there were noticeably more people in the shoe section than home wear and if you are after something from the men's section you would have been in luck as it was almost empty.
All in all the experience was almost entirely stress free, indeed the walk to Long Row with the expectation of nearly an hour's wait time was more worrying than being inside.
Elsewhere in the city there were no queues to get into Sports Direct, which yesterday had a line snaking all the way down Lincoln Street to the back end of Wilko's. Clumber Street did remain busy but mainly as a cut through. No queues could be seen outside intu Victoria Centre at 11am.
