True. You’re just interacting closely with the viruses/bacteria/fungi/dirt/body oils of everyone else who has touched the machine since the last time it was cleaned.
Also, the current technology with self-checkout doesn’t work too well with large and larger orders.
If it makes you feel better, at my store the cashiers do all the bagging, too. Unless you ask to bag your own, which we’re OK with. At Aldi’s you always bag your own.
Are you suggesting that the scientific consensus and global focus on social distancing (people staying apart) is wrong, and that your personal speculation about what might be transmitted via surfaces is more important?
Retail cluelessness is endemic where I live (Brookyn, NY), apparently.
At my local supermarket (Key Food), they have the plexi barriers between cashiers and customers. The barriers run the length of the cashier station – the customer puts groceries in at one end, gets bags of groceries at the other. All well and good. And the cashiers will handle the bagging, if you want. This is New York, and bags cost money, and everyone is encouraged to bring their own bags. Which I do. But the cashiers will not bag your groceries in your bag. I don’t know why. So the customer has to come around behind the plexi screen.
At Target, customers have to line up outside the store, six feet apart, and are admitted to the store as people leave, to keep the store from getting too crowded. Again, all well and good.
Now, here’s the layout – Target occupies the second and third floors of a small shopping mall (Atlantic Center, if you know the area). Ordinarily, one goes up an escalator to enter the store. When I went there the other day, they were using a back entrance to enter the store, and reserving the escalators in front for exiting the store.
So I get on line. It’s moving along pretty well, and employees are enforcing a six-foot distance between people on line. I get to the entrance (at ground level), and discover that, holy shit, they’re herding people in groups onto an elevator! Groups of six, in fact. Which put people about two feet apart, at best, if they were thin people.
I didn’t go in.
The local pizza joint I go to every Friday night: about 7-10 people in the kitchen. Except for one guy, none of them nor the three cashiers are wearing masks. Even worse, they are not nor can they stay 6’ apart. This is as of April 17.
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Last Thursday, I was running errands that could be done from my car: Pick up a gallon of milk, make a deposit, stop for fuel.
Here in Oregon as many are aware, other people pump our gas for us. I understand this restriction has eased a bit in the wake of COVID-19, but there’s no evidence of it at my local refueling stop. The place was packed and no one was pumping their own gas.
I was happy to see all the attendants were masked up, as was I, so I thought there would be no problem with letting the attendant do the pumping. Bad call.
The young feller arrived at my window and pulled his mask away from his face to ask what grade of fuel I wanted. This behavior repeated each time he approached and spoke to me.
I finally said, “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but every time you use your fingers to pull your mask away to speak, you could be transmitting virus to your own mouth. And every time you speak to me with the mask pulled away, you could be transmitting virus to me. For both our sakes, could you please leave your mask in place while we manage this transaction? I’d really appreciate it.”
He had the decency to look sheepish and did leave the mask alone after that.
I will pump my own next time I need fuel. Probably in June.
I posted this in the minirants thread, but I think it bears repeating here:
Stupid fucking people.
10 y/o is at his mom’s house, supposed to come back this afternoon.
Hi mom texted this morning to see if we could wait until tomorrow.
Because they’re smoking a brisket and have GODDAMN FUCKING PEOPLE COMING OVER THIS FUCKING AFTERNOON.
Oh, but what’s the big deal, because they “going to eat outside”.
Jezusfuckingfuck.
Who knows what other silly shit they’ve been up to over there. She’s putting MY household in danger as well. Fucking assholes.
Oh FUCK IT GETS BETTER!
They took a family trip to Cabelas on Tuesday, to get a fishing pole. Fuck me.
I’m pissed she’s putting him at risk. But then he comes over here, so he’s also putting me, my wife, and other two sons at risk because of the stupid shit she’s pulling. Oh, and he plays with his friends all the time too.
I’m so furious I’m shaking. This has to stop, or I’ll have to make the incredibly hard decision for him to just stay there until this is all over. I can’t let her stupid ass put my people at this house at risk.
I see people who are doing the right thing, masks on, careful what they touch, keeping distance, and then they see a friend and they rip their mask off and go give them a huge long hug. Multiple times and places.
Did my every two week grocery shopping today. One guy there walked right next to me in the produce department (about 2-3 feet away) and coughed. No mask. I moved away and tried to get ahead of him so I wouldn’t keep running into him. The aisles were marked with big arrows and sign, indicating one way traffic. Many people were oblivious to it, but then I saw the coughing guy try to come down the aisle I was in the wrong way and I said something to him…I just pointed to the sign and said, “These are one way only.” He harrumphed but he went on his way.
Then, one of the workers there said something to me. I didn’t hear him and said what? He took off his mask and repeated himself…he was just making a joke about something. It’s the wild west out there in the stores!
My wife and I took a walk this afternoon and we saw not but two groups of 3 people each standing around on the sidewalk having a yakfest and making no effort to move out of the way. We had to detour out into the street and they didn’t even appear to notice us.
We went out to see what the scene was at outdoor nurseries and farm stands. Went back home after seeing most people without masks and not distancing.
Good news I was there last night and EVERYONE was wearing a mask (though I caught one of the cashiers quickly throwing one on when I walked in). This is because PA is requiring approved businesses require employees and customers to wear a face covering. It sucks that it takes that for this to happen, but if it saves lives than good!
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I’m in Astoria, Queens, NYC. Queens is the Epicenter of the Epicenter. I’ve been wearing gloves for 7 weeks now. A mask for perhaps 4. Here’s my ritual on going to the local Key Food. ( Typical inner city supermarket: VERY narrow aisles. ) I do not shop but every 3-4 days. In keeping the freezer filled with meats, our shopping bill runs around $ 120.00 per visit.
º Gloves and mask before leaving the house. Zip-Loc back of Lysol or Chlorox wipes in coat pocket.
º Take 2 reusable shopping bags. As of March 1, it’s the law in NYC anyway- COVID 19 irrespective.
º Shop slowly. No product goes into the cart. It all goes into the bag that are set up IN the cart. Second bag remains empty.
º No touching cell phone once I leave the house unless unavoidable. Immediately wipe down with Chlorox wipe.
º Approach self-checkout. Take out fresh wipe. Wipe down Nitrile gloves I’m wearing. Scrub- and I mean scrub hard back and forth- the Pre and Post and main scale/ scanner surfaces. Also, wipe down touch screen and keypad/ swiper used for payment. Now, I get some odd looks from people for doing this. They are cordially invited to and fuck themselves. My method greatly reduces surface transfer of virus. No employee has ever tried to prevent me from sanitizing this most foul communally used area.
º Scan, pile into reusable shopping bag. Finish, pay. Wipe down credit card after use, put into wallet.
º Distribute product into both bags for ease of carrying.
º Roll cart out to sidewalk. Remove bags, head home.
º Get into building and up to 2nd floor landing. If my wife is not on a work Zoom call, she is the “catcher”. We keep a large spray bottle of Lysol on the floor outside of the door. I spray into pieces of paper towel and wipe down every package on all surfaces. Sloppy, wet, lots of fluid used. Then I place it into her catching bag. Slowly transfer all goods into the house. Her “catching” bag ( another large reusable shopping bag ) never leaves the house and hasn’t since well before COVID-19. It’s clean.
º Two large reusable shopping bags get wiped down, left outside of door in hallway.
º Remove coat, spray down. Leave on hanger outside door to dry out.
º Get to UV-C Sterilizing Box I’ve fashioned. Remove mask and HEPA filter insert. Place into UV-C Box. Remove gloves.
º For more than 6 weeks now, I’ve been using a Dobie Pad to scrub my hands and arms when returning to the apartment. Hot water, bar soap and LOTS of sudsing and scrubbing aggressively. Much more effective in my mind than just using your skin. 20 - 30 Seconds on both hands and arms. Rinse off.
º Take new Lysol or Chlorox wipe out. Wipe down outside of UV-C Box, since I was wearing gloves when I placed mask and HEPA filter into Box. Rinse off Lysol. Turn on box for 15-minute Decon.
From the moment I get to the apartment door to the moment I’ve plugged in the Box is no more than 10 minutes. More if I have to transfer the food into the “catcher” bag alone. But…I’ve not nothing but time.
People are mostly ignorant of spacing in our local Key Food. I’m pissed off that they have not made all aisles one-way. ( A brilliant and cost-free move that keeps people from moving past one another no more than 1-3 feet apart. ) I routinely back out of an aisle and hide against a display until people clear out where I want to go. Again, I am in NO rush and keep looking for people approaching from behind.
Outside of the food acquisition routine, just being ON the sidewalk is stressful. I walk into the street all the time to avoid some fuckwit selfish asshole who is wearing their mask resting protectively against their trachea. I avoid everyone in terms of 8 feet distancing, but the maskless wonders? They’re more and more arrogant and obnoxious in their glaring BACK at me as I look at them. They won’t wear a mask- which happens to be illegal in NYC now. You’re out? Have a mask on your neck. You approach others? Slip it up and on. People are simply not. They could give two shits.
Wow. OK, that does sound like an effective protocol. If only everyone else was so diligent… or even half as diligent…
I can’t find a link to it but a couple of weeks ago there was a Facebook meme of a woman grocery shopping while wearing a mask and snorkel for protection.
Yes, this is a huge issue where I live, too (Brooklyn Heights). It’s a real problem. And the sidewalks here are considerably narrower than they are in Astoria.
The biggest group of maskless assholes are joggers/runners. Just by observation, the majority of them do not wear masks.
Another (smaller) group is extremely rich women in the north end of the 'hood. They will walk down the middle of the sidewalk, without a mask, yelling “six feet, six feet!” at everyone they pass. Apparently we’re all supposed to step off the sidewalk for them.
And then there are the twenty-somethings. They’re the ones who will respond obnoxiously (“fuck off” is typical) if challenged on their refusal to wear a mask or stay away from everyone else. Obviously there’s some overlap with the joggers here.
That said, most people are trying. They’re wearing some kind of mask, whatever they can get their hands on.
You really should talk to a lawyer.
This is irresponsible at best, and actually dangerous.
Lawyer…or a ghillie suit, a good scope, and a .308.
Today another customer at the store came super close to me and I moved away. He then leaned all over my carriage, which I stepped away from to get distance from him. Dude. Come on. I don’t want your germs and why in the world would you want mine?