[This post is from a series written during the first weeks of the COVID crisis.]
I fear successfully reopening is going to take more than we have.
I was shopping at my favorite modern five-and-dime store, and I saw a disaster in the making.
It was uncomfortable.
A line snaked twenty-feet to the cash register, where two harried cashiers worked at their best to process customers, some with shopping carts literally brimming with items.
The line was bunching: the cashiers weren’t processing fast enough. The air was thick and muggy.
When I asked the manager why he didn’t open another lane he said, “social distancing,” meaning he couldn’t have three cashiers so close to each other and, he felt the need to add, that there were only 45 people in the store, meaning that he was following all the regulations.
...Oh...
Ok, so then it’s ok to have all 45 people bunched in line trying to check out: families, children...all in masks, but some people coughing?
How about adding another cash register at six feet apart, or simply moving the one you have six feet from the other?
And while we are at it, could you please consider moving to a ‘touchless’ point-of-sale system.*
How are we going to accomplish more difficult things if managers can’t reconcile two issues – let alone three – at the same time?
Yes – you can have 45 people in the store.
No – you can’t have them forced into checkout all at the same time.
Yes – you can have social distancing for your cashiers.
No – you can not have only two cash registers open.
Because we can’t sit around breathing each other’s air simply because a company is looking in the wrong direction.
They owe us better than that.
A crowded line is often unpleasant. A crowded line in COVID could be more unpleasant still.
* Daiso, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daiso
**This Elavon point-of-sale system is unfortunately a COVID-friendly disaster: it requires multiple unnecessary steps using a stylus and has no place for the stylus to go.
It guarantees time-wasting fumbling with every transaction and adds to both the wait in line and the chances for contamination.
It’s interesting that Elavon is now promoting “contactless payment options.”
This prior system has got to go.