With just a few hours to go until Wales goes into a two-week lockdown, the country’s government has failed to provide a definitive list of what cannot by sold by retailers.  

Today Bira met with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and a host of major retail businesses to review and respond to new draft circuit breaker guidance - ahead of the lockdown starting at 6pm tonight (Friday, October 23).

Under the two-week lockdown, non-essential retailers - including homeware - will have to shut. The Welsh Government has said that of those shops allowed to open, ’non-essential’ items will not be allowed to be sold.

While there is still no definitive list of what cannot be sold, the Welsh Government has at least agreed to take a more pragmatic approach, by reducing the burden for retailers to relocate non-essential products on mixed isles where otherwise it would cause unnecessary constraints and affect safe circulation of customers.

Bira’s Director of Marketing John Halliday, who attended the discussions, said: "This does have the potential of some ambiguity, but is a marked improvement on the previous binary approach.

"Furthermore, retailers who have a click and collect service no longer need to edit stock availability on existing click and collect services where it would be impractical to stop non-essential items being purchased.

"There are further concessions being requested and we will feed back as we know more, but for now, it seems we have been listened to and the Welsh Government is trying to accommodate business as best it can under the circumstances.”

For more details see the Welsh Government website here

Additional Guidance and Resources