Since England entered into a national lockdown this week I’ve been contacted by many CEX staff members concerned about the chain’s plans to stay operational when all non-essential businesses are supposed to close, and all employees are required to work from home where possible.
CEX is one of several non-essential high street retail chains which have opted to stay open to offer click-and-collect. This is permitted by government guidelines, which describe click-and-collect as a service “where goods are pre-ordered and collected off the premises”.
On top of this, CEX continues to offer the opposite service, which it terms Drop & Go. As the name implies, this offering is designed to let customers drop off used goods in-person at CEX stores after having generated a receipt for them online. Payment is subsequently made via bank transfer after the items have been unpacked by staff, cleaned and tested.
It’s this service in particular which has sparked concern among CEX staff members speaking to me under condition of anonymity in order to protect their jobs. One staff member I spoke to said company bosses justifying this service as the kind of click-and-collect defined by government rules was simply an attempt at “toeing the line of legality”.
“And don’t get me started on the Covid deniers berating staff for not being able to let them in to browse.”
“Drop & Go involves handling people’s unclean items at the door,” another staff member described. “In my area of the country we have a lot of the new [Covid] strain and the staff are very worried that we are touching dirty stock from customers’ homes. I have no idea if this is even allowed under the government’s guidelines.