Oxford Street braces for just 20 per cent of usual footfall when shops reopen
Shops on London’s usually bustling Oxford Street are bracing themselves for as little as one-sixth of their usual footfall when they reopen on Monday.
Coronavirus lockdown restrictions ease on 15 June, allowing retailers on Oxford Street, Regent Street, and others to fling open their doors for the first time since March.
However, Jace Tyrrell, chief executive of business group the New West End Company, told CityAM that London’s busiest shopping streets are expected to be significantly quieter than usual for weeks after opening.
“We haven’t got the international tourists, we haven’t got the UK tourists, and we haven’t got the office workers on anywhere near the scale we had before lockdown,” he said.
“We’re really not expecting high demand over those first few weeks. We expect around 15 to 20 per cent of footfall.”
His prediction comes after a survey last week found that Brits may be too anxious to visit shops in person when they reopen.
EY research found that four in five people said they would be uncomfortable trying on clothes in a store, while only a quarter said they feel comfortable going out to buy groceries, despite it being a necessity.
Tyrell was nonetheless optimistic that the lack of people coming into the West End from elsewhere would create an environment that Londoners were comfortable with in the early weeks after reopening.
“[The lack of tourists] should give Londoners particularly the confidence to come into the open air,” he said. “We’re never going to see a summer like it again.”