Let's rock! Wolverhampton vinyl shop reopens to public
The owner of a popular Wolverhampton record store has spoken about the prospects ahead as she reopens today.
Claire Howell was reopening Vinyl and Vintage, on Cleveland Street, after having been closed for nearly three months due to lockdown restrictions.
The store will open to the public, albeit with a number of restrictions in place to help people observe social distancing.
These include a buzzer system to enter the shop, a waiting area outside to limit the number of people entering at any one time and a screen around the counter, with hand sanitisers throughout the shop.
Claire said she had mixed feelings about being able to reopen the shop, saying she was delighted to get back to work, but didn't know how many people would be prepared to come in.
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She said: "It's nice that people can come out, although there are still social distancing rules and people may be wary of going out in public.
"However, we do know a lot of people who want to go out and spend money and who will be delighted to get out, so it's all about managing it."
The 51-year-old, who has been based in Wolverhampton for 10 years, said she would be offering 30-minute time slots to people who didn't feel comfortable being around other people.
She also said that the shop opening would have a big impact on her financially as many regulars had been waiting for the shop to reopen before they bought anything.
"I've pretty much sold nothing during lockdown and have found the mail order to be unreliable, with even people in the UK waiting four weeks to get a package from us," she said.
"I did try to let regulars know that they could click and collect their records, but most of them said they'd rather come in when we reopen and physically buy the records in the shop.
"We'll see what happens over the next few weeks."
