IKEA, a furniture and home accessories provider, is reportedly reopening its stores in Singapore on Friday, by conforming to the social distancing measures. However, the furniture giant will keep its kids’ facilities and food & beverage stores closed for the time being.

As precautionary measures, the 2 outlets of the company in Alexandra and Tampines will limit the customer pool in the store, reduce the opening hours, as well as close the parking spaces in case of long queues. Additionally, it will deploy more workers for crowd management inside and outside the facilities as well as social distancing ambassadors to escort the customers along.

Sanitization process will also be accelerated in every hour, by focusing on highly touched areas such as shopping bags, seats, and kids’ showrooms. The premises will then be disinfected during the closing hours.

Store operating hours of Alexandra will be 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday & Saturday. On the other hand, the Tampines store will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday & Saturday. The company will allow 1 person for every 10 square meters and reduce the visitor capacity to around 15-25%. Other measures include wearing of masks, temperature checks, and safe entry.

The furniture company’s bistros, restaurants, and the Swedish food market will be opened gradually in the next 2 weeks, depending on the number of additional confirmed cases for COVID-19 and crowd levels. The play area for kids will also be closed to ensure their safety.

The company has gained nearly 100,000 customers who purchased its products online after its stores were closed on 7th April, resulting in a 50% increase in e-Commerce sales. IKEA headquarters has recently stated that it has returned the COVID-19 government aid in Serbia & is expected to do so in other regions namely the U.S., Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Belgium, and Romania.

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https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ikea-open-hours-food-meatballs-furniture-12844706