Shoppers have been sharing pictures and videos of huge queues outside IKEA as the homeware store reopens.
Today, IKEA stores in England reopened their doors for the first time since lockdown began and many people have queued for hours.
The Swedish homeware giant announced plans to reopen stores last week, with new guidelines on shopping that followed social distancing rules to keep shoppers and staff safe.
The stores reopened at 10am this morning, including the Ashton and Warrington sites.
Despite only being open for a couple of hours, most stores have reported huge queues which in some cases have taken up entire car parks.
Many Twitter users have tweeted their dismay at the queues for the stores: “It’s before 1030am, 20 degrees heat and look at these mad b*stards queuing for Ikea That queue has got to be good half a mile long easy. WHY?”
Another said: “Can’t believe the queues ive seen at Ikea!! People are mental”.
Jamie North added: “Just at the Ikea in Warrington, being told 30 minute queue to get into the car park and then a 2 hour wait to get into the store. Apparently about 1000 people waiting.”
IKEA has said that they will be enforcing social distance shopping, added extra cleaning and safety precautions and only accepting card payments.
They’re also keeping restaurants and play areas closed for customer safety.
A full list of the IKEA stores now open:
- Belfast
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Croydon
- Gateshead
- Exeter
- Greenwich
- Lakeside
- Leeds
- Manchester
- Milton Keynes
- Norwich Order & Collection Point
- Nottingham
- Reading
- Sheffield
- Southampton
- Tottenham
- Warrington
- Wembley
