This is when your local Greggs will reopen - and the new social distancing measures you'll have to follow when you visit

In news all pasty lovers will be pleased to hear, Greggs has announced that it will soon be trialling the reopening of some UK stores.

The popular high street bakery chain was forced to announce the closure of its 2,050 UK branches on 23 March, when a lockdown was put into place by the government.

Prior to this, the chain had already implemented a takeaway only service, to protect customers and staff.

When will Greggs reopen?

With infection rates now slowing, however, the company is set to trial the re opening of some of its branches from Tuesday 5 May.

Greggs is set to reopen 20 branches in Newcastle (the original birthplace of the bakery) on Tuesday. The reopening will be a trial, lasting at least two weeks.

The company plans to reopen gradually in three stages, the first of which will include the 20 Newcastle branches.

Depending on how the initial trial goes, they hope to have reopened 700 shops by 8 June, though the exact branches have not yet been confirmed.

In the third stage, Greggs is aiming to have all shops reopened by 1 July, when the government's job retention scheme is set to end.

A Greggs spokesperson said, “We want to play our part in getting the nation back up and running again so we are planning to conduct a limited trial with volunteers to explore how we can reopen our shops with new measures in place that keep our colleagues and customers as safe as we can when we re-open at scale.”

Social distancing measures in stores

Those paying a visit to the reopened shops will have to observe social distancing measures put in place by the chain. These will include adhering to a one-way system in-store, and paying attention to directional signage and floor markings, to encourage distance between customers.

Greggs is closely monitoring the changing situation and may adjust their reopening schedule depending on the success of initial trials.

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