Harrods to Reopen Flagship London Store, Plans Outlet Shop

(Bloomberg) --

Harrods will reopen its flagship London store in June, with social distancing measures in place, and open an outlet shop to sell stock left over from the spring season.

The luxury retailer plans to use footfall monitoring technology to limit capacity at its main Knightsbridge store and ensure social distancing can be maintained, when it opens on June 15. Specific doors will be designated for entering and exiting the store, which was closed in March as the coronavirus outbreak started to spread in Britain.

The new outlet, based in West London’s Westfield mall, has been designed to allow more space for customers, the company said.

“In the new world in which we find ourselves, the economy needs businesses willing to look at its business model and current operations and think differently to enable growth, while protecting its customers and employees,” Managing Director Michael Ward said in a statement. “Harrods Outlet allows us to enable better social distancing across a larger footprint.

Harrods, which began as a single-room shop in 1849, is now owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.

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