Woodies opens stores early across Ireland as queues form from early morning

Queues formed outside a number of Woodies store this morning as the company opened its 35 stores nationwide.

At 7am this morning, the first customers started queuing for the scheduled 9am opening at Woodie’s DIY, Home and Garden outlets throughout the country.

At 7.30am Woodie’s decided to open their doors early to reduce customer waiting time, alleviate the build-up of queues and to facilitate a smoother flow of customers into the store.

Woodie’s says its number one priority is the safety of their colleagues and customers and will continue to follow all government guidelines and health advice. They were among the first businesses in the country to introduce successful social distancing policies when COVID-19 first became a threat in Ireland.

The company says it has spent in excess of half a million euro on Covid-19 safety measures in preparation for their re-opening.

With a priority to ensure that all colleagues have the tools to ensure their own safety and that of their customers when in store. Some of these safety measures include sanitation stations at the front of every store where all customers must sanitise their hands before entering the store (even if already wearing gloves), perspex screens on all checkouts, face shields, masks and t-shirts reminding everyone to stay two metres apart.

On re-opening CEO of Woodie’s Declan Ronayne said, “It feels like the right time to re-open and we are delighted to do so. Having spent much of the lockdown further enhancing our social distancing and hygiene measures we are pleased to reopen our stores and to do so with confidence for the safety of our customers and colleagues. It has been a difficult period for everyone and we believe DIY and gardening has an important role to play in the mental health for most of us who remain largely confined to our homes and gardens. Our stocks are more than sufficient to meet ongoing demand so there is no reason to rush to your local store or to bulk buy. In that way we can ensure the safest possible DIY shopping environment for everyone”