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Yard Market is Re-Opening on June 17!

by in Annoucements June 8, 2020

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 3 months since we’ve seen most of you! Those crazy few weeks before we had to close seem like a distant memory, another world even! Then again, I suppose it was a different world…

We’ve missed you all and missed our little haven of creativity and friendship, but these couple of months have given us some important time to stand back and look at the whole Yard Market operation. We will have some new and exciting announcements coming in the next few weeks, but in the meantime I want to focus on our re-opening plans.

First of all, considering that none of our children seem to be going back to school for the remainder of the school year, we will be open only for limited hours and days. Over the next few weeks, we can judge demand and see how the situation progresses.

New Hours of Operation are: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10am-3pm.

Secondly, Laura has been hard at work reconfiguring the shop. It is essential that we make it Covid compliant, for both the safety of our customers and ourselves. That means more than just a reconfiguring of displays – we’ve had to rethink the entire way we operate! Some of the new measures will be a bit odd to begin with, but of course we don’t mean to be unfriendly or cold. We hope that you understand – we’re trying our best!

The new set up will go as follows:

  1. In order to enter the shop, you must wear a face covering. You can wear a mask, a scarf, or anything creative like that. If you don’t have anything, we will have resuable masks for purchase from one of our makers, or a disposable one can be provided. Obviously, due to the ethos of the shop, we would prefer not to do anything single use, but they will be there just in case.
  2. Hand sanitiser will be provided at the entrance, please wash your hands thoroughly before entering the shop.
  3. There will be three different lines – refills, shopping, or click and collect. We will have a display board outside with a complete pricelist so that you can choose your refills. We can then either refill for you at that time depending on how busy it is, or you can pick them up at the next click and collect slot.
  4. We are adding a click and collect option to the website. Once your payment has been processed, you will receive an email with a time from when collection is possible. Deliveries will still be available for those shielding or whom remain vulnerable and cannot leave the house.
  5. Only 3 people allowed in the shop at once (not including Laura or I!). Please wait at the designated entry point, and we will instruct you as to whether or not you are able to enter at the moment.
  6. We understand that if you have children with you, you can’t just leave them outside! But we would prefer only one member of each family, if possible. We hope you understand that with our limited capacity, if a whole family or group comes in together, then this prevents other customers from being able to enter.
  7. A one way system will be in operation, please follow the arrows. There are a couple of spots in the shop where one might need to pass by another customer. Please be respectful and keep 2m distance between yourself and others at all times, and wait for people to pass if necessary.
  8. Please, absolutely no touching of products without purchase. If you want to see something up close or have any questions, we will be more than happy to assist you. This one is going to be a bit difficult, but it is essential to maintaining a safe environment. There is no way we can sanitise teddies or candles or kids clothes every day after closing if contaminated.
  9. We are so sorry as we so enjoy seeing their little happy faces, but the children’s drawing table has been removed.

We hope that these changes are easy enough for you to abide by, there will be clear signs reminding you of the guidelines. And again, please remember that we are doing this to make sure that we are all safe and healthy and can get back to a more ‘normal’ service as soon as possible!

We look forward to seeing your smiling faces!