, Columnist
Boris Johnson Does Wonders for Turkey Sales
Hard lockdowns in southeast England are terrible news for retailers, but curbing Christmas mixing is a short-term gift for supermarkets.
One household only.
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Britain’s retailers and restaurant groups thought it couldn’t get worse after the November Covid lockdown. It just did.
The U.K. government’s announcement of new ultra-stringent “Tier 4” restrictions in London and the southeast of the country — closing non-essential shops and telling people to stay home where possible — inflicts another blow on struggling store groups. The British Retail Consortium, the industry’s trade body, said stores would lose 2 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) a week under the new restrictions.