I received this in an email just after 5pm yesterday:

PB Tech store showrooms in Auckland won't open right away at Level 3 Step 2

 

Hi Mike,

We’d like to take this opportunity to advise our Auckland customers that our store showrooms in Auckland won’t open right away as the city moves to Alert Level 3 Step 2 on Wednesday 10th November.

We’ve made this decision as the change in Alert Level Steps has coincided with our biggest sale of the year, Black Friday, and we believe keeping our showrooms shut is the right move to prioritise the health and safety of our customers and staff during this busy time.

As many of you will be aware, PB’s Black Friday sales can get crazy busy, and we are very concerned about large crowds forming during this time. Focusing on click & collect in Auckland during this busy sale period gives us more control over the crowd build up outside of our stores while still offering an efficient way to get our awesome Black Friday deals into our customers hands quickly!

For customers with returns, warranty issues, or in need of repairs / services we are still recommending filling out either the returns / warranty form or service quote form online in the first instance rather than dropping your goods off at our Auckland stores.

Thanks in advance for your understanding and rest assured our Auckland showrooms won't be closed for too much longer and we will update you as soon as they open again.

The PB Team

I would like to applaud this decision by PB Tech.

Retail stores (and particularly malls) are likely to be chaotic and potentially unruly over the next few days.  I'm concerned for retail workers over the next few days, partly because stores may already be jam packed with excess stock that has arrived over the lockdown period and because of potential unreasonable customer frustration with items being out of stock.

I've also heard murmors of potential panic buying due to potential delays in some retailers Christmas stocks.  I've heard one online store of a bricks and morter retailer had their best ever day on Monday and this was suspected to be due to this panic buying.