A new study suggests that shoppers may be fearful of returning to large enclosed shopping centres when lockdown restrictions ease on 12 April to allow non-essential retail to open. Researchers from the Universities of Portsmouth and Edinburgh in the UK, Saint Xavier University in the United States and the Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogota, Colombia found that shoppers experience higher levels of stress, lower levels of excitement, and greater difficulty focusing on a shopping task when in the presence of large crowds of other shoppers. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, people have been required to avoid crowded spaces, maintain social distancing in retail stores and shop alone when possible, and to avoid touching public surfaces. These ‘new normal’ behaviours work against enclosed shopping centres in terms of being attractive destinations for shoppers. However, they could be a boost for smaller, independent shops where there are not so many people. Study co-author Dr Jas...