EE UK and BT to Reopen High Street Stores on 15th June 2020

Broadband and mobile giant BT (EE) has announced that they will re-open their high street retail stores from the 15th June 2020 as part of a phased roll-out alongside new social distancing measures, which is in stark contrast to rival Virgin Media’s recent decision (here) to completely abandon their high-street presence.

The brief announcement mentioned that the re-opening would be accompanied by a “range of measures” in stores to make customers and colleagues feel safe, which will be “enforced” for those who enter.

Nevertheless it’s hard not to see the timing of this perhaps somewhat rushed announcement (full details of the new measures will apparently “follow in due course“) as also representing a crafty little dig at Virgin Media’s somewhat different strategy, even though BT would no doubt deny that.

Lee Frankham, BT’s Retail Director, said:

“At this difficult time for everyone, there is no substitute for personal, local service. We’re ready to re-open our stores to help our customers with the connections and help they need.

Keeping our customers and our people safe is our number one priority, and we’ve been working tirelessly to introduce measures so everyone can be confident to visit our stores knowing that we can look after them and each other. We’re thankful to our amazing retail colleagues who have been helping customers online during the past month, and we are looking forward to welcoming customers back to our stores.

End.