You can find local bookshops at Independent Bookshop Week. However, customers will be required to visit alone or with household groups as these premises reopen. THE GOVERNMENT HAS announced that the country is moving to Level 5 restrictions as of Wednesday night – so what retailers and services will be allowed to continue? BA calls for bookshops to be classified essential retailers The letter says: "This is potentially ruinous commercially and is also morally problematic. This has been undertaken in countries, and the ‘essential’ categorisation will acknowledge the crucial role that bookshops play in our culture, economy and wider society. Bookshops are resilient and creative, and this is not a case of special pleading; this is a request for an acknowledgement that books matter, and that therefore bookshops matter and should be allowed to stay open. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy, Professor Sam McConkey: Ten steps we should take to rid Ireland of Covid for good. The list of essential retail and services is longer than at the peak of the last shutdown, with hardware shops, bicycle repair shops and opticians joining the likes of supermarkets, newsagents and pharmacies this time around. Bookshops in Scotland are also expected to reopen in April, the Bookseller reported. Just like the previous two coronavirus lockdowns, a handful of … Echoing the words of Philip Pullman, Halls added: "Bookshops … All other retailers can open for a click-and-collect service, where this can be appropriately managed within public health guidelines. As the UK continues to battle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, non-essential retail has had to shut its doors once again. Hardware outlets, builders’ merchants and outlets that provide hardware products necessary for home and business maintenance or construction and development, sanitation and farm equipment, or supplies and tools essential for farming or agriculture purposes. The publisher said he put the letter together quickly and could have got even more authors involved but wanted to strike before lockdown started. The American Booksellers' Association shares thoughts on the importance of books during the pandemic. In an open letter, reproduced in full below, BA m.d. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, posts, comments and submissions available. The authors state: “Please may we urge you to declare books essential items during lockdowns, and to allow bookshops and libraries to remain open, if they so wish, in Tier One and Two areas at the least. Support The Journal Irish sport images provided by Inpho Photography unless otherwise stated. When coronavirus restrictions finally lift to allow non-essential trading, please consult our Shop Finder to confirm opening hours. Any other retail outlet that operates an online or other remote system of ordering goods for purposes of collection at the retail outlet. Any decision to move an area into level 4 will only be made if absolutely necessary as a short, sharp intervention to address very high transmission rates. Noteworthy | The appeal echoes calls from Waterstones boss James Daunt for bookshops to be classified as essential retail, and also comes after writers including Antony Beevor, Ali Smith, Edward St Aubyn and Salman Rushdie wrote to the Prime Minister last week asking for books to be considered essential items. , 300px wide Pharmacies, chemists and retailers or wholesalers providing pharmaceuticals or pharmaceutical or dispensing services, whether on a retail or wholesale basis. Garden centres. Retail Excellence Ireland had warned the government that “all retail should be classed as ‘essential’ to avoid a potential 60,000 job losses, particularly in the run-up to Christmas. The full list of signatories features Pat Barker, William Boyd, Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, William Dalrymple, Sebastian Faulks, Tom Holland, Barry Humphries, Howard Jacobson, Simon Jenkins, Neil MacGregor, Ben Macintyre, Margaret MacMillan, Alexander McCall Smith, Ben Okri, Philip Pullman, Simon Schama and Tom Stoppard. Shop Closures Shops in England . Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, submissions or preferences. All pubs will have to operate take-away and delivery services, while ‘wet pubs’ in Dublin will have to remain closed entirely. Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. Garden centres made the case that spring was their busiest trading period, that if they were unable to trade at that time of year their businesses would not survive, and that gardening would be beneficial to the nation’s mental health while at home. We urge the government to consider classifying them as essential retailers.”. Meanwhile other retailers, deemed essential under current regulations, are arguably exploiting the situation, putting specialist retailers at a massive disadvantage. The Explainer is a weekly podcast from TheJournal.ie that takes a deeper look at one big news story you need to know about. Shopping centres are allowed to stay open if they have retail units which offer essential services, such as food or medicine, or shops on this list. Independent bookshops in the U. K. have backed the accelerated launch of a new online retailer that plans to go toe-to-toe with Amazon, carrying a … We are eager to help achieve that, but we also know that our bookshops are lanterns of civilisation and, for many, beacons of hope. Column: 'Pontins only achieved such rapid notoriety because it targeted common Irish surnames'. At the moment, every one of Waterstones’s UK shops is closed, as is its location in the Netherlands; the company’s shop in Belgium (where bookshops have been deemed essential…