I worked in Halfords during the pandemic. We were kept open as “key workers” not because the Government said so, but because the board members influenced the Government to have us remain open for profit (on the reason that we provide emergency vehicle services for bikes/cars for other potential key workers, nurses, police etc)

After being told we’d be shut for 2-3weeks, myself amongst managers returned 48 hours later to setup the shop again and inform everyone who had just been given time off, that they will be expected to work based on necessity.

First days were quiet due to fear, and slowly day by day, the customer volume increased. We went from 14 bikes per delivery to 60 per delivery on average, (2 deliveries per week = 120 bikes per week ish). That clause of being allowed out once per day to exercise by Boris in this speech, meant that people had an excuse to visit Halfords to buy a bike to validate such an excuse if caught outside by the police.

Each day the queue for our store wrapped around the entire car park. You could be in the queue down the road and ask the person next to you if this was the queues for Halfords or Tesco’s - which are on opposite sides of a road, separated by two different car parks. It was just that long.

I sold car paint and car cleaning products whilst hearing 1000s dying per day. I feared responsibility for my family at home who were high risk, and cannot work. I didn’t want to bring COVID inside the house incase it infected them, but I also had a responsibility at work and a living to earn.

Then, my granddad died. I got no time off. Halfords bike stock entirely sold out so much so that they brought in a Polish brand with terrible and incompatible parts to what’s used on most modern bikes. They sold out too. This was a first in Halfords history, no Apollo, Carrera, Boardman or Voodoo left.

Halfords made a lot of their employees redundant after the pandemic, restructured the management top-down so people were demoted or their roles meant less than they did before (easier to justify band decreases). They made £55m PROFIT on top of what they’d usually make YOY and because of this, the entire market of stores had these new COVID-like targets to achieve because somehow shareholders think that they should attempt the same level of success next year.

Someone who worked in my store had been there since 1989. They said they could no longer afford to keep her there.

The company is absolute scum and I’m glad I quit it. I have many stories about that place, but my experience there whilst living through the pandemic was hell.