McDonald’s has announced that it will close all of its locations in the UK on Monday, the day of the Queen’s burial, as a show of respect.
The 1,300-location fast food company announced that restaurants would be able to reopen at 5 o’clock.
McDonald’s tweeted: “In honour of HM Queen Elizabeth II, and to enable everyone at McDonald’s to pay their respects, our restaurants across the UK will be closed from midnight until 5pm on Monday 19th September.”
Public bank holidays have been declared for Monday, and many high street retailers have already indicated that they will be closed. Argos, Asda, B&Q, Curry’s, Harrods, Holland & Barrett, Homebase, Ikea, John Lewis, Lidl, Morrisons, Odeon movie theatres, Pets at Home, and Primark are a few of them.
Sainsbury’s will close its primary locations, but its convenience stores and gas stations will be open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Additionally, several locations in central London will open to accommodate funeral attendees.
Smaller Express locations will open at 5 pm, while larger Tesco stores will be closed with the exception of a few in central London and Windsor.
With the exception of a few stores close to the procession route, Waitrose is closing all of its locations. High street locations of WH Smith will be closed all day, while its travel locations will be closed for at least the duration of the funeral.
Some hospitality businesses will still run, though. On Monday, the Stonegate pub company will keep its establishments open and will air the Queen’s funeral on television. Whitbread, the company that owns Premier Inn, likewise declared that all of its inns and eateries would operate normally.
According to Downing Street, each company can choose how to handle the bank holiday.
The day of the funeral would function as a typical bank holiday, the prime minister’s official spokesperson stated on Wednesday.
“Individual businesses will need to make the decisions about what is right for them, and discuss with their employees, but there is obviously no one-size-fits-all approach,” he said.
Source: The Guardian
