These images will have made the hearts of store managers, city centre operators and local council leaders soar.

It had been suggested that a large proportion of the population, as high as 40 per cent in some polling, was not intending to resume shopping for non-essential items from this week, despite Government ministers deeming it safe to do so.

Clearly, the return to a fully active economy is still some ways off, but for those that were keen to resume shopping it could not have come sooner.

And while there were some sardonic comments about how important the need for a new outfit from Primark (or whichever high street name you care to mention) truly is, it was gratifying for those of us concerned that the impact on the economy, society and prosperity of our nation could inflict more damage than Covid-19 ever could.

It is easy for armchair critics and keyboard warriors to pour scorn on those queuing in the June sunshine as vapid unconscious consumers, lining up to buy items they do not need in order to secure a quick endorphin hit.

A more nuanced view is that millions of parents in this country will have seen their children outgrow their clothes after close to three months of lockdown.

Others may have gained or lost weight during their period of confinement.

Or, perhaps even, some people may just have had a genuine need for a household item that, after weeks of being denied access to, could not be obtained. Remember, there are still many thousands of people in this nation who either cannot, or chose not, to shop online.

Undoubtedly, we have a long way to go to get society back to something approaching normal (on orders of myself, the phrase “the new normal” is banned on the YP business desk, so what is good for the goose etc).

Government plans to have schools open for all Reception, Year One and Year Six pupils by this stage currently lay in tatters.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, along with fellow ministers, now seem to be flapping around like a Primark carrier in the wind to come up with a credible plan to fix the complicated but crucial problem of so many children having their education, youth and wellbeing stolen from them, a state of affairs which is causing increasingly severe damage to millions of childhoods with every passing day.

Seeing the well-executed return to shopping may give parents, teachers and governors the confidence to send their children back where they so desperately need to be.

But let’s turn away from schools and multiple retailers and look closer to home.

Independent retailers, quite by accident, have been given a window of opportunity that is usually denied to them by lockdown, particularly when situated in suburban or rural areas.

Ask any independent retail owner and they will say the biggest challenge is letting people know they exist. Suburban high streets have far lower footfall than those in centres.

With lockdown having confined us to our locales, many people are only now finding out what is on their doorstep and, for those who have been able to keep trading in some measure this last few weeks, it has been a game changer.

However, it’s not all good news. According to the British Retail Association (Bira), independent stores need to take 70 per cent of what they were taking pre-lockdown to break even.

With one in 10 Bira members still unsure on reopening, the time for us to back them is now.

Retail was having a tough time before Covid-19 but this crisis will be the death knell for so many. But if you value local business and the community in which you reside, you now have a clear choice; use it, or lose it.

As the economy reopens it will be us as consumers who decide in many cases what survives.

With that in mind, we all have some very big choices to make.

If we do not support our independent retailers they won't be there for much longer - Mark Casci