Sainsbury's in Hitchin is set to close for two days as a 'thank you' to staff in recognition of their efforts during the pandemic.

The planned closures will come on Boxing Day, following the supermarket giant shutting its doors on Christmas Day.

Barring online sales, it is extremely rare for Sainsbury's to not trade after Christmas Day - making it a total of 48 hours closed to the public over the festive period.

According to latest figures the firm had 813 convenience stores and 598 supermarkets, including their Hitchin town centre store off Bancroft.

The UK's second-largest supermarket says that the move which will affect the vast majority of its 189,000 workers across the country including Hitchin, is entirely to do with recognising their unstinting efforts serving our community during the pandemic.

Sainsbury's is set to keep all of its stores shut on Boxing Day, including Argos and Habitat chains, to give frontline staff a rare chance to savour an uninterrupted Christmas break.

The popular supermarket chain, which will also ensure all its convenience stores and petrol stations will also be closed on 26 December, said the move was a 'thank you' to busy employees following 18 tough months since the pandemic started.

Simon Roberts, Sainsbury's chief executive, explained: "Christmas is a really special time for so many, but because of lockdown restrictions last year, lots of us weren't able to celebrate in the way we wanted.

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[I]"In recognition of this and to say a massive thank you to all our colleagues for everything they have done during the last challenging year, we will be closing all our supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol filling stations, as well as Argos and Habitat stores, this Boxing Day."

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