Curry PC World and The Entertainer are both extending opening hours in the run-up to the closure of ‘non-essential’ stores on Thursday.

Currys PC World plans to extend its opening hours across the bulk of its UK stores, excluding Wales, to 8pm until November 5. Some larger-format stores will remain open until 10pm to deal with an expected surge in demand for home technology products before the second lockdown begins.

Currys PC World’s chief operating officer Mark Allsop said: “While we expect footfall to increase between now and Thursday, our extended opening hours will help ease the busy periods in store.

“From Thursday, we will support our customer tech needs through 24/7 online, ShopLive and Order & Collect. This means we are able to welcome customers into our stores until the full nationwide lockdown begins and continue to support them through November.”

The Entertainer chief executive Gary Grant told Retail Week the toy retailer is also extending its opening hours across as many stores as possible.

“Our store trade today is absolutely flying – I think people are responding to the lockdown measures and realising that if they don’t physically buy toys over the next couple of days we, and couriers, almost certainly will not be able to manage the online volumes by Christmas,” he says.

“By 2pm today, we were double where we were at the same time last year, despite the fact Wales is in lockdown and Scotland trade showed no material change as there aren’t incoming restrictions there.

“We’ll extend opening hours on all stores where we aren’t limited by shopping centre landlords so we can be ready for two more outstanding days.”

Grant added that the retailer will be “throwing everything we have at click and collect” during lockdown in a bid to compensate for lost trade due to ‘non-essential’ store closures.

The move by Currys PC World and The Entertainer comes as the retail sector braces for a second lockdown in the run-up to Christmas, which the British Retail Consortium has warned will ”cause untold damage to the high streets” and ”permanently set back the recovery of the wider economy”.

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