McDonalds, Topshop and New Look close stores due to coronavirus
High street retailers have begun to shut stores in response to the coronavirus pandemic in the UK.
Topshop, New Look and H&M are among the major UK retail chains to temporarily shut all branches over the weekend.
The government ordered all pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants to close on Friday as the public were encouraged to practice social distancing. However so far shops have not been told to close.
Sir Philip Green has faced backlash after employees of his high street empire Arcadia, which owns Topshop and Dorothy Perkins, said they had been laid off with no redundancy pay.
Over the weekend Arcadia made the decision to shut its stores across the UK, saying all store staff “remain employees during this time and will be paid their normal pay for March plus any outstanding overtime payments”.
However Metro reported that some temporary staff had been let go without pay.
Topshop & Arcadia
Meanwhile, Waterstones yesterday said it will close all of its stores following online backlash over keeping them open.
John Lewis is among the high street giants to shut their doors to the public.
Meanwhile fast food giant McDonalds announced last night that it has also made the decision to close its 1,350 stores in the UK and Ireland this evening, while Pret and Itsu have also decided to temporarily close.
Paul Pomroy, Mcdonalds UK and Ireland chief executive, said: “We have not taken this decision lightly and know that our restaurants have been playing an important
role in the community providing hundreds of thousands of free drinks to frontline health and social workers and emergency services personnel.
But I have been clear throughout this that we would only continue to operate whilst it was safe for our people and together with our franchisees, we feel now is the time to make this decision to temporarily close.