Coronavirus: Holland & Barrett remains open despite staff calls for closures

The health and wellbeing retailer operates 750 stores across the UK and has been classed as an essential retailer as its range caters to customers with special dietary needs.

However, staff have called for the retailer to close its stores, with a petition mandating store closures to protect staff and customers garnering 2,600 signatures.

Staff who have signed the petition argue that the retailer’s stores are too small to practice safe social distancing and that, unlike supermarkets and pharmacies, the vast majority of what it sells and what customers are visiting stores to buy does not qualify as essential.

Holland & Barrett has put in place measures to protect staff in its stores including limiting the number of customers allowed in at any given time, reduced opening hours and asking shoppers to scan their purchases themselves at checkout.

But one employee told the BBC that “It is almost practically impossible to maintain social distancing, as the aisles are very short width and when we have to deal with customer queries, they do not respect the boundaries.”

A spokeswoman for Holland & Barrett said the retailer’s stores would remain open in accordance with government guidelines as “90% of what we sell is food, vitamins and food supplements, which many of our customers rely on to manage their dietary or underlying conditions.”