The First Minister has announced further Covid-19 restrictions, including curbs to non-essential retailers’ click and collect and food-to-go takeaway services.
The Scottish Government's new guidance states that from Saturday, non-essential click and collect retail services will be prohibited in Level 4 areas and further changes will be put in place to how services open for essential purposes operate.
Timeslots will be required for collection and people should not enter a store to collect an item.
Businesses providing takeaway food will also operate on a ‘non-entry’ basis only, meaning customers cannot enter the premises when placing or collecting orders.
Only last week, updated government guidance stated that these services could remain open and trading.
This follows the decision at the end of last month to add garden centres and homeware stores to the list of non-essential shops, meaning they would have to close.
The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) wrote to Scottish Ministers on Friday about the threat to click and collect and food takeaway services, before joining other representative bodies to write again to Ministers on Monday and Tuesday about the issues.
SRC director David Lonsdale said that while he recognised that the government wants people to stay home, these "revenue-crushing restrictions and the fresh complexity they bring", together with constant changes to the Covid Strategic Framework, are making things very difficult for retailers.
“The businesses affected – who have already lost much of their income during the crisis - are trying to make the best fist possible of the current severely curtailed trading conditions, and that just got even harder as a result of this decision which will add to their cash flow woes.
“The blunt reality is that the taxpayer-funded grant support on offer won’t make up for lost sales and firms’ mounting bills and debt during this pandemic.
"Even when we eventually emerge from lockdown, shops will be unable to trade at capacity due to physical distancing and caps on numbers in stores, while the threat of a return to full business rates liability in April still looms," Lonsdale added.
CBI Scotland director Tracy Black called click and collect "a lifeline" to many businesses, particularly smaller firms, as one of their few remaining revenue streams.
“Of course, firms can choose to suspend click and collect if that makes sense for them, but for many others it could mean the difference between business survival or not.
“It’s really important that the Scottish Government sets out compelling evidence that these services are a source of transmission and provides additional, urgent support to compensate for what would be a further loss of revenue in increasingly challenging times.”
Click and collect services offered by essential retailers can continue, but will be suspended across retail, other than for:
- Clothing and footwear stores.
- Homeware stores.
- Garden centres/plant nurseries.
- Baby equipment shops.
- Electrical goods (including repairs).
- Key cutting and shoe repair shops.
- Bookstores.
