Will B&M and Home Bargains stay open during the second lockdown?

With England set to enter a second national lockdown, non-essential stores will be forced to close their doors from November 5th.

That means shops selling selling food and medicine will be allowed to stay open, including supermarkets and chemists.

While non-essential retailers, such as clothing, electricals and furniture will have to close.

In the first lockdown, B&M and Home Bargains were deemed 'essential' as both retailers stock food and household goods, so were allowed to remain open.

This means both stores should continue operating as usual when the next lockdown begins this week on Thursday.

On November 2nd, B&M issued an update to customers on its Facebook page to say its stores will stay open, encouraging shoppers not to panic buy.

The statement read: "As an essential retailer and on Government advice we remained open in the first lockdown.

Home Bargains remained open during the first lockdown (newcastle chronicle)

"B&M was proud to serve our communities and we will be doing so again. Our colleagues are working tirelessly to make sure you can get all of the items you need, " it continued.

"So there's no need to panic buy – our warehouses are full and we are working super hard to keep stock flowing into stores."

There are currently around 600 B&M stores across the UK - you can track down nearest using the  store finder tool.

All B&M stores have protective measures in place, such as protective screens at checkouts and B&M staff have sanitizer, face masks and gloves.

The discounter is also limiting the number of customers allowed into each store at any one time.

Meanwhile, Home Bargains stores are also allowed remain open during the new national lockdown, as they did during the first lockdown.

This is because the budget store sells essential items such as food and medicine. To find out your nearest Home Bargains and its opening times, use the store finder here.