Retailers across different categories are working overtime to deal with increasing absenteeism and a repeat of the chaotic ‘pingdemic’ scenes of the summer as the new Covid-19 variant surges across the UK.
As England delivered a record number of Covid cases for the entire pandemic, a number of retailers have expressed concern at the prospect of surging Omicron cases leading to an uptick in absenteeism, in turn exacerbating ongoing supply chain and availability issues in the run-up to Christmas.
“It’s not a major issue at the moment, but things are moving very rapidly,” said one grocery source. “We coped with the quarantine rules, and arguably those were stricter than these. Obviously, if it starts to ramp up outside of London as people head home, that’d be a concern.”
Currys chief executive Alex Baldock also expressed worry over the emerging variant, with some medical professionals predicting Omicron could drive 100,000 cases a day in the UK by January.
“That could present two challenges for us. On the one hand, a demand as well as a supply problem caused by Omicron and a lot of isolations could present us with. On the demand side, it wouldn’t be helpful for footfall in stores, but we’ve shown in the past year that we can still achieve double-digit growth by transferring those sales online.”
Retailers were also worried that the spread of the more transmissible Omicron variant could lead to a repeat of the havoc caused by the ‘pingdemic’ in the summer, when tens of thousands of workers were forced to isolate after coming into contact with someone with Covid-19.
However, the government has recently updated the guidance meaning that fully-vaccinated individuals who come into contact with someone with Covid can take daily lateral flow tests instead of isolating.
Passed the test
The grocery source said that while absentee rates in stores were at more than manageable levels, he said warehouses and depots were being harder hit. To avoid outbreaks, he said retailers were reinstituting some social distancing and quarantining measures and were also undertaking daily lateral flow testing on-site for all staff.
“There was a scheme set up for depots which was to basically get around this by testing at sites,” he said, which means staff haven’t been affected by the recent shortage of lateral flow tests.
Ocado retail chief financial officer Niall McBride said it had a “good stock” of lateral flow tests for staff at its sites and was “looking at everything like masks, handwashing and thinking about how we drop food to customers. We’ll move whatever measures we have to be in line with government guidelines”.
Currys meanwhile has turned to flexible contracts to ease the burden, according to Baldock. “We’ve got a lot of colleagues who are on flexible contracts, so we’re able to dial up their hours with their consent should others be unavailable. That’s been a big factor to mitigate bumps in colleague availability that we felt throughout the pandemic.”
Superdrug said it had seen a rise in Covid cases but maintained it had the necessary staffing levels to ensure stores would remain open throughout the festive period.
“We have seen the recent rise in Covid cases impact store team availability but this has not led to the closure of any stores,” said a spokesperson, adding: “We remain open and fully committed to serving customers for their pharmacy, health, beauty and gifting needs this Christmas.”
British Retail Consortium chief executive said the UK retail sector would cope with rising cases and ensure that stores are open and stock is available for customers in the run-up to Christmas.
“Despite a rise in Covid cases across the UK, retail staffing levels continue to be manageable in the run-up to Christmas. There has already been a gargantuan effort to ensure that essential food and gifts are ready for the festive season, despite ongoing challenges in the supply chain. We are confident it can be a great Christmas for consumers, and retailers are pulling out the stops to keep staff and customers as safe as possible during these difficult times.”
- Sign up for our daily morning briefing to get the latest retail news and analysis
No comments yet