'A great start' say business leaders as crowds return to high street shops
Retailers across Somerset say they've been 'heartened' by the support they've had since being allowed to reopen.
Last updated 13th Apr 2021
Yeovil - in particular - saw up to 30 per cent higher footfall yesterday compared with a normal weekday.
The town’s chamber of commerce have described yesterday’s trading as a ‘great start’ and hope it will help retailers bounce back.
Some retailers had queues outside as stores limited the number of shoppers inside at any one time.
Anna Reed, an independent trader at The Emporium said: “I think people are very excited about being able to shop again.”
Dawn Woodward is the director of the Emporium in Yeovil - which houses more than 60 intendent businesses.
She said: “The fact that we’re actually here and the shop’s open and we’ve got customers in the shop and staff on the tills it’s unbelievable.
“I’ve been pinching myself. Is it real? Are we really open? Yes we are.
“We’ve got 60 independent businesses here, all small micro businesses who put their hearts and souls into doing what they do best.
“You know they love their businesses and the fact they’ve been cut dead for so long and closed down has been a a real source of frustration and here we are all of us back together – not it’s a real force of energy it’s a real exciting buzz for us here in the town.”
James Tovey, manager of the town's Quedam Shopping centre, said: “We’re much more optimistic, I think this time around because we’re hoping that we’re starting to look a few months down the line and hoping that this is the irreversible unlocking that we all hope that it is.
“I think the challenge for us is still going to be the uncertainty.
“18 months ago I was looking at two, three, five year plans for the centre and now we’re looking at two, three, five weeks and months.”
David Woan, president of Yeovil chamber of commerce, said: “I’m thinking this could be the start. This could be the start of the climb out of lockdown and out of the whole episode that we’ve been through over the last fifteen months.
“It’s great. But we’ve got to take it one step at a time. If we rush this we’ll be back in the same place again.”