The government has announced that with appropriate social distancing and other measures we can reopen on Wednesday. We welcome this decision but with a degree of caution as we are concerned about the safety of both our team and customers.
- Our Plant Centres will both open for business as usual but with an emphasis on social distancing and increased hygiene measures at the tills. We suggest you bring disposable gloves and sanitiser for your personal peace of mind when handling trolleys and products
- The Blooms Cafe at West Parley is now open and is run by ourselves rather than as a concession. Please wear face coverings until seated at your table and sanitise oyur hands appropriately.
- In line with a number of other retailers the Toilet facilities at both Centres will be closed until further notice – please bear this in mind when planning a visit.
- Stuckton/Fordingbridge opening hours are extended to 9am – 5pm in line with West Parley to reduce congestion.
- We considered specific trading hours to assist elderly customers but feared this would have the opposite effect as many of our customers would fit into this category.
- In order to maintain social distancing we have put in place a ‘One Way’ system at both stores- we ask customers to follow the arrows, keep 2m apart and it will be a safe and enjoyable visit, our stores are a pretty simple setup, straight up and down so this works well. We understand that browsing is part of the enjoyment, and we have plenty of stock looking great – however we ask that you use your own judgement as to how long you spend in store, there will be a lot of pent up demand and we want to try and supply as many customers as possible whilst keeping everyone safe, like everything at the moment, a bit of common sense will go a long way.
- Limits on people in the store at any one time will apply based on our store size so, ideally we would ask you to come alone, but a maximum of 2 customers per trolley/group if you must come as a pair from the same household. Two people together MUST stay close together while in the Sales area. We ask for only 1 person to queue/pay at the till to minimise interaction with till staff. Please avoid bringing children to the Centres.
- Dogs will not be allowed until further notice.
- Our Plant Centres are friendly places where friends and neighbours often meet in an unplanned way and socialise. During these exceptional times please resist that temptation, move through the sales area smoothly and avoid delaying the flow.
- We have lots of stock still growing on the nursery so there is no huge rush.
- Depending on how strong demand is we may introduce late night openings. To manage customer numbers we may allocate access ‘tickets’ through our ’email news’ system to spread the load on our Centres
- There will be no ‘Offer Vouchers’during this initial stage of re-starting the Plant Centres. We do not want to stimulate demand at this time when the level of pent-up demand is an unknown.
Regarding deliveries and click and collect we appreciate many of our customers are still shielding, and we would love to be able to keep deliveries going but we just don’t have the staff levels to offer this service on top of the shops at present. If and when capacity becomes available to offer additional services then we will do so. All orders already placed will be honoured and delivered within the next few days.