Last Friday the government made face coverings mandatory for the public in all retail stores. Retail Week analyses what effect this will have on consumer confidence and economic recovery.

  • Face masks are now mandatory in shops, but retailers do not believe store colleagues should enforce the guidelines
  • Footfall dipped in England as the measures came into force, but is on the rise in Scotland, which has had them since July 2
  • Waterstones and Superdry bosses believe the effect on trade will be minimal, but other retailers note a deterrent effect 

Having trailed the idea of mandatory face coverings in shops in England for weeks, the UK government brought its guidance into effect from July 24. 

Face coverings in stores have been mandatory in Scotland since July 2 and required on all forms of public transport, in England at least, since June 15. Yet the rollout of the new measures has not gone smoothly.

For one thing, the government did not publish the guidelines until Thursday afternoon, giving affected retailers less than 12 hours to effectively work out strategies for dealing with them.

Guidance that was provided was also criticised for a lack of clarity on how it impacted retail locations such as shopping centres, where consumers need to wear masks continually, versus places that offer table service, where masks are not required.

Along with the ambiguous guidance and short timeframe in which to implement the new rules, the government has also faced criticism over who exactly is meant to enforce them.

Failure to wear a mask technically carries a £100 on-the-spot fine. However, it remains unclear who can actually issue these fines.

Retail staff certainly won’t be able to. Met Police chief Cressida Dick effectively ruled out police officers enforcing the rules as well. Dick said on Thursday that police would only respond to calls about non-compliance “as a last resort”. Instead, she hoped customers would be “shamed” into complying by the behaviour of others.

67% of Britons are in favour of the mandatory face mask ruling in shops, while just 16% oppose the measures

A number of retailers, too, have ruled out having staff monitor the guidance. Sainsbury’s said on Thursday that staff “won’t be challenging customers without a mask”, while Dixons Carphone ”won’t prevent customers from entering a store if they are not wearing a face covering”, although store staff “would remind them about the new rules”.

Asda, too, has followed suit. The grocer said that while it would “encourage” customers to wear a mask, ultimately “it is the responsibility of the relevant authorities to police and enforce the new rules”. 

The director of another high street grocer said that it was advising store staff to wear provided face coverings “in places where social distancing can’t be implemented, as a means of encouraging customers to do the same”. However, he too ruled out having frontline staff turn shoppers away if they didn’t have a covering. 

“For one thing, there are exemptions to the guidance anyway for people with certain health conditions. For another, ultimately, it’s not really the job of our staff to be implementing or enforcing these rules,” he says. 

Hotel Chocolat chief executive Angus Thirlwell said he would expect “high levels of conformance to the new rulings” from the public.

He said that more than 50% of Hotel Chocolat customers had been voluntarily wearing face masks in stores before the ruling. However, he did reiterate that it was not the retailer’s role to be “face mask traffic wardens”. 

A poll by Ipsos Mori found that two-thirds (67%) of Britons are in favour of the mandatory ruling in shops, while just 16% oppose the measures. 

Despite fairly strong support for the move, the public is less convinced when it comes to whether or not face coverings will make them more or less willing to go into stores.

Some 25% of respondents said that having the rules in place will make them more likely to go shopping, while 21% said less likely. Over half of respondents said the measure would have no effect at all. 

This mixed sentiment seems to have been borne out over the weekend, when face masks became mandatory in shops.

Decline in footfall

Although footfall rose 4% in England over the last week overall, shopper numbers on Friday and Saturday – the first two days when face coverings became mandatory – declined by 1.7%.

England was the only country in the UK that registered a decline over both days week on week, and it registered the steepest decline on Saturday, when shopper numbers fell 3.2% overall – although this fall is likely to have been exacerbated by wet weather.

“I’m sure it was an unintended consequence, but it’s actually acting as a deterrent – people feel like they are walking around a hospital, not a shop”

Retail boss

High streets registered the steepest decline over the two days, with footfall down by 7.7% on Saturday, while shopping centres proved the most resilient, with footfall up 0.4% and 0.3% week on week on Friday and Saturday respectively.

However, the boss of one retailer says they registered “a real hit to footfall” in their shopping-centre outlets over the weekend.

“There’s been a very negative impact on footfall and dwell time in shopping-centre stores, where shoppers have to wear masks the whole time, whereas on high streets they can remove them going from store to store,” he says.

“I’m sure it was an unintended consequence and the government implemented this measure to get confidence up, but it’s actually acting as a deterrent from what we are seeing – people feel like they are walking around a hospital, not a shop.

“I’m sure the action was taken with all the best of intentions, but it’s not helping us from a footfall perspective at all.”

A source from one major grocer poured cold water on suggestions that the face mask ruling had sparked a drop in shopper numbers.

Although he admitted that trading was “a little bit behind forecasts”, he said that was offset by “unexpectedly high” fuel sales – the conclusion being that fewer people were shopping because they were heading away on holiday, not because they had been put off by face masks.

Waterstones boss James Daunt also believes shoppers were undeterred by the new measures.

“It’s been plain sailing. A few people forget or need a gentle reminder, but frankly it’s without drama”

James Daunt, Waterstones

“It certainly hasn’t caused us any issues. Sales relative to last year were actually better this weekend, but that’s generally because it was boiling hot last year, which is when we don’t tend to do as well. So, I can’t claim that in reality face masks have had much practical impact one way or the other, but certainly not negative,” he tells Retail Week.

“In respect to masks, it’s been plain sailing – people have gone from not wearing them at all to wearing them, much the same as they did on public transport. A few people forget or need a gentle reminder, but frankly it’s without drama.”

Superdry chief executive Julian Dunkerton echoes this view and says that, although there was a “marginal decline” in footfall over the course of the weekend, he expects shoppers wearing face masks in stores to “normalise very quickly”.

While Daunt said Waterstones staff were “generally happier that at least there’s a perception of them being safer” due to shoppers wearing masks, a source from one grocer said the ruling was putting additional strain on already overburdened employees.

“Like a lot of retailers, we aren’t telling our store colleagues to enforce face masks or to tell people they cannot enter our shops unless they wear one.

“There have been a few instances where that’s caused some friction and a few problems – we’ve had customers arguing with other customers because they haven’t been wearing face masks. It’s something else that our colleagues are having to deal with now beyond their day-to-day work.”

The source added that it was roughly a 50/50 split between shoppers that were and weren’t wearing masks in store over the weekend.

While England’s shoppers adjust to the newest iteration of a new normal, retailers may be heartened by Scotland’s footfall figures – the only other country in the UK where face masks in shops are currently mandatory.

Last week, footfall in Scotland increased 6.4% and was up 5.3% over Friday and Saturday specifically.

Early signs are that shoppers have taken face masks in their stride, despite last-minute guidance from the government.

Retailers will now hope that this additional measure will increase consumers’ desire to head to store and their confidence that they can do so safely, rather than acting as another strain on the already much changed shopping experience.