[Ammi]

...this is specifically a story regarding supermarkets in Wales but it’ll apply more widely I’m sure and I didn’t want it to get lost in the main COVID thread...I mean, I totally get the ‘theory’ of this, to try to ‘level’ it a bit for retail businesses which can’t stay open...but it’s the lack of clarity of essential and non essential and how it’s indeed very far from ‘being made clear’...certain items of clothing as a for instance...(...if a child needed a specific item for school or an elderly person needed a clothing item etc...)...would be more of an essential than confectionary/unhealthy or luxury food items etc...?...but those things will continue to be sold as essentials, while other more essential for some, won’t be...is that correct...?...


Supermarkets will be unable to sell items like clothes during the 17-day Covid firebreak lockdown in Wales.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said it would be "made clear" to them they are only able to open parts of their business that sell "essential goods".
Many retailers will be forced to shut but food shops, off-licences and pharmacies can stay open when lockdown begins on Friday at 18:00 BST.
Retailers said they had not been given a definition of what was essential.
The Association of Convenience Stores and the Welsh Retail Consortium have written urgently to the first minister, expressing alarm over the new regulations.
Sara Jones, head of the Welsh Retail Consortium, said: "Compelling retailers to stop selling certain items, without them being told clearly what is and what isn't permitted to be sold, is ill-conceived and short-sighted."
Welsh Conservative Andrew RT Davies tweeted: "The power is going to their heads."
But Plaid Cymru's Helen Mary Jones said "smaller businesses should not be put at an unfair disadvantage during the firebreak lockdown".

...full article...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-54648194