Parents again say they don't have uniform with just days to go until school starts

There have been queues outside School Togs Schoolwear by Monkhouse in Worcester City centre in recent days, with parents concerned as their orders have yet to arrive.

Sophie Probert said: "Ordered over five weeks ago and still haven’t received all of my items.

"I’ve been ringing the store for over a week no answer so I went down there today to be told they don’t know when the rest of my order will be in store

Melissa Flynn said: "A lot of parents are in this situation. I have a few friends who ordered just as school broke up.

"Advised two-week wait. Still no uniform for next week."

Earlier in August we reported that the school uniform shop had strongly advised parents to get shopping early, amidst stock delays across the country due to Covid-19.

At that time the store was dealing with 2,000 bookings at the Worcester branch, having set up the booking system last year.

Alison Aitchison, operations and integration director, said then: "The industry, like many others is facing delays and cost impacts due to Covid but as a business we bring our stock in very early and so we currently have good stock holding in our Worcester store.

“But, the best advice we can offer is for parents is book an appointment and shop early to save any disappointment.”

However with only a few days to go queues have regularly been seen outside the New Street shop, with people trying to see if their order was ready.

When a Worcester News reporter visited yesterday afternoon there was a queue of five groups waiting, with staff speaking to people outside.

The reporter spoke to the manager and asked for a comment on the latest issues, but was told we would need to speak to Monkhouse directly.

No one from the firm came back to us before our deadline.

There were similar issues this time last year when the firm said, with goods coming from China, Pakistan and European countries, there were "inevitable delays" during the pandemic.