Re-opening LEGO Stores and Social Distancing, How will it work?

With the recent news coming from the UK government it seems as though some ‘non-essential’ businesses can open, and this includes Toy Stores.

The LEGO House in Billund has recently announced that it’s re-opening 22nd June, although with some restrictions.

Will other LEGO Stores follow suit and open around the same time?

But just how will LEGO enforce the current social distancing guidelines in-store and what would that look like 🤔

If we take a look at what Supermarkets and Takeaway businesses have done to protect both their staff and customers, we can see that some sort of barrier is setup between them, and the odd hand sanitiser bottle dotted around. We can expect LEGO to follow suit, as there is nothing more important than keep everyone safe!

We get a glimpse of what our local LEGO Stores could look like and how they would function from YouTuber Bricksie, who recently visited his recently re-opened store in Albert, Canada.

(Video courtesy of Bricksie and Beyond The Brick)

The video shows us how LEGO implemented the two meters apart rule, the changes to queuing & purchasing, and LEGO staff handling the Sets.

(Image capture from Bricksie’s video)

The space in the centre is allocated to customers with spots on the floor positioned to give us a rough guide as to where to stand and walk. To minimise potentially spreading COVID-19 the LEGO Store staff will now handle the Sets, wearing gloves and of course masks. They will show you the set you’d like to see and if you’d like to purchase it they will take it up to the checkout and process the order. It’s only after then you get to hold your new LEGO set.

(Image capture from Bricksie’s video) 

Again as with most Supermarkets and alike there are entry restrictions. Depending on the size of the store this may vary, but as mentioned in the video above the store will impose a limit of six People at a time and one-out one-in setup.

The two main reasons to visit a LEGO Store are the Pick-a-Brick wall and Build a Minifigure Station. Sadly these will be removed or covered up and be off limits to everyone, even staff.

As time goes on we can expect these measures to be altered or even relaxed, but at present this is the best we can expect and we should be happy with that.

Personally I won’t be visiting my local  store until the Pick-a-Brick wall and Minifigure station is back up and running or I’m passing when out for an essential shop. In the mean time I’ll continue to use Shop@Home.

I can understand why LEGO and other retailers need to re-open and be able to trade once again from their physical premises, and I also understand how hard it must be to open with these new rules and guidelines in place.

We all need to support our local businesses and of course stay safe at the same time.

If you have any other thoughts on this matter please feel free to share with