COVID-19 Safety Measures – What to expect when shopping…

The garden centre is open to visiting customers with strict social distancing measures in place.

It will come as no surprise that your shopping experience with us will be very different until COVID-19 is no longer a threat, trading is significantly restricted and our priority is the safety and well-being of all our team and customers.

We are asking that all customers and our team comply with and respect the simple set of rules regarding social distancing and instructions, as displayed in the garden centre. These special measures are for your safety; for the safety of those around you and for the safety of our team.

Stay Alert! Please do not visit the garden centre if you are felling unwell, have a temperature, or have been in contact with someone who is unwell. (https://kidsrkids.com/)

Please wear a face covering while you are shopping with us. This is a legal requirement from 24th July 2020 in order to keep others safe & limit the transmission of COVID-19.

Please stay 2 metres apart from any other customer or staff member at all times.

A limited number of customers are allowed into the garden centre at any one time, to manage this a Greeting team are stationed at the entrance of the garden centre. Queuing may be necessary to enter the garden centre and to pay at the cash desks but members of staff will be on duty to monitor queues and ensure social distancing is adhered to at all times. The till queues are controlled by an employee who instructs customers which till to go to when safe to do so. As customer numbers are limited queues generally move quickly.

We encourage you to shop individually where possible, a maximum of 2 people from the same household will be allowed into the garden centre at any one time. We would discourage you from bringing children at the moment as this is not a browsing environment, we are open for you to purchase your garden essentials.

As this is a ‘Shop and Go’ system with very little time for browsing we would encourage you to make a shopping wish list before visiting to enable you to make your selection and progress to the cash desks as swiftly as possible, this ensures a steady flow of customers throughout the garden centre. Currently home deliveries are not bookable in store (with the exception of garden furniture), we would encourage using our online shop or e-mail us for larger orders of items such as compost – please click here for further details.

We will ask you to use a trolley – why is this necessary?  A trolley is allocated to each customer to enable us to efficiently monitor the number of customers in the garden centre. We are currently restricted to 102 customers at any one time, so once our trolley allocation is depleted our queue control team are not able to allow any further customers in until a trolley is returned and sanitised ready to be issued to the next customer waiting. The trolley also acts as a spacer guide, especially when queuing, as it allows at least a trolley length space between customers. For the safety of our customers and our cashiers we ask that customers making purchases present their items in the trolley at the cash desks in order for the cashier to scan the items without having to have them handed over, avoiding person to person contact and allowing social distancing to be observed. Till operators have been instructed on how to serve the customer and process their transaction whilst maintaining a safe social distance.

Please be aware that payment is by CARD ONLY and contactless if possible, we are unable to accept cash as payment. The contactless limit has been increased to £45 at all till points throughout the garden centre.

Layout changes across the garden centre have been made to maximise the amount of space between people when working or shopping. Please follow the clear navigation markers on the floor to aid social distancing and to ensure the one-way system is followed throughout the centre. Replenishment of stock in the garden centre is completed before or after closing times wherever possible.

At the customer facing counters, including the tills, screens have been erected and signage is in place indicating where the customer must wait and stand whilst being served to maintain a safe distance. 

The Plant Information & Advisory Centre and Children’s Play Area are currently closed.

Toilet facilities are open. Toilets and all hard surfaces in the washroom facilities are monitored and cleaned throughout the day.

Hand sanitiser is available for customer use at key points throughout the garden centre including outside the toilet facilities and at the cash desks. Shopping trolleys are sanitised between each customers use.

If any of the details are unclear, please ask a member of the team for their assistance.

Our Opening Times are Monday – Saturday: 9am – 4.30pm and Sunday 10.30am – 4.30pm. The Coffee House and The Watering Can are open daily 10am – 4pm.

We reserve the right to ask anyone unwilling to comply with these rules to leave the premises.

Thank you for your support, we hope you enjoy your visit, stay safe – The Aylett Team