BFC face masks among top-sellers at first two John Lewis stores to reopen

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 16, 2020

John Lewis opened two stores on Monday with the firm taking a phased approach to reopening now that the lockdown has been eased in England. And the company said that the British fashion Council’s face masks were among the top selling items in one of the stores.

The company opened its branches in Kingston and Poole, both in Southern England, and shoppers in the former included the BFC face mask initiative on their must-buy lists, the Telegraph reported.

The BFC last week unveiled a link-up with a number of UK labels to produce affordable face coverings. The designer labels taking part include Halpern, Julien Macdonald, Liam Hodges, Mulberry, Raeburn and Rixo.

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But fashion overall didn’t appear to be a key priority for John Lewis shoppers as other items selling well included mainly homewares.

In the first two hours of trading at Kingston, the most popular items were buttons, the BFC masks, egg cups, China sets and baby sleepsuits.

Meanwhile at the Poole branch, early shoppers snapped up towels, sofas, pillowcases and bed sheets, TVs and printer cartridges. That should all be good news for John Lewis’s Home and Electricals/Home technology divisions as these had seen sluggish sales in the periods before the pandemic.

On Thursday, the retailer will open its branches in Bluewater, Cambridge, Cheadle, Cheltenham, High Wycombe, Horsham, Ipswich, Norwich, Nottingham, Solihull and Welwyn. But it hasn’t yet set a date for reopening its Oxford Street and Sloane Square flagships in London.