The Gosh! Authority 13.06.20 - RE-OPENING NEWS!

Hi all!

As you may have surmised from my subtle header, we are very pleased to announce that Gosh will be re-opening at 1 Berwick St on Monday the 15th June from 10.30am! Of course not everything is going to be quite back to normal, so let's dig into the details.

Firstly, we will be operating with a skeleton crew, bringing as few staff back off of furlough as possible (just one at this point), so we will have slightly reduced opening hours. For the time being we will open from 10.30am - 5pm, 7 days a week. So do plan accordingly!

Secondly, we have put in place a number of measures to ensure social distancing as per government regulations and recommendations from advocacy bodies in the retail sector. These are as follows:

• When coming to the store, please wait at the door until a member of staff indicates that you can enter.
• No more than 8 people will be allowed into the store at any time. You may be expected to queue before entry, and we would ask that you do so while observing social distancing guidelines. Please be considerate of others by only shopping individually whenever possible.
• On entering the store we would ask that you sanitise your hands using the dispenser that is by the centre table. It is foot-operated, so no contact is required. If you have your own preferred hand santiser then you may use this instead. If you have sensitive skin, then please wear gloves and sanitise those instead. 
• Otherwise we would discourage the use of gloves unless you have a fresh pair to put on when you enter, or you sanitise them.
• While we are not making it compulsory, we would encourage you to wear a mask when entering the store.
• When in the store, please observe social distancing guidelines whenever possible. 
• There is a one-way system in place around the store marked by arrows on the floor. Whenever possible please follow this.
• We have a screen at the till, and we would ask that you only approach the till at that point (we are waiting on more perspex sheets to screen off the entire till area.)
• We are now operating a card-only policy for the time being. Speak to staff if this is an issue for any reason.
• When queuing for the till, there are marked queue points on the floor that we would ask you to observe. If the queue points are all taken, please browse until one is free.
• And lastly, please be patient and kind with both our staff and each other. We're doing our best to provide you with comics in a manner which is safe and responsible, and we're all in the same boat with this situation.

What fun! We'll be constantly reviewing these guidelines as government advice and the actual practicalities of being open develop, so stay tuned for future notices.

Couple of other bits to drop in this week:

• DC fans will be pleased to hear that supply of new DC product will remain as normal in the UK until at least the end of the year thanks to some wheeling and dealing behind the scenes. There are also provisions in place beyond that point, so never fear, Bat-fans, we've got you covered.
• No delivery this coming week. Our next delivery will be Wednesday the 24th June. No word yet on whether we will be continuing on that two week schedule after then, but we'll let you know as soon as we do.
• With the deliveries we have had, out standing order boxes are fit to bursting. Please do come in to collect as soon as you're able now we're open, and if you can't for reasons of safety for yourself or others, do please contact us to arrange a mail order.
• On that front, going forward for the time being we need to ask people to clear their standing order section at least once a month.
• We have installed a new till system while we've been away! If you give us your name at the till, we can now set you up with an account that notes any special information that we might require when checking out (such as store credit), email you receipts and so on. If you've set up an account on our new webstore, you'll already be in there!

And that's about that! Join us next week, when we might actually talk about some comics!

Andrew.