The Coronavirus Panic Thread

[Dreamstalker]

I took the bus to a favorite shopping haunt across the river yesterday. The T has reduced capacity to about 50% and masks are required for all riders and employees. Buses are requested to bypass stops if they are at capacity and the local tracking app tells you how crowded a given bus is so you can decide if you want to get on it. The "no bags on neighboring seats" rule has been suspended.

The ride there was great, not crowded in the least and passengers were distancing. A few 'day pass from the mental hospital' types not masked, but everyone was behaving. The stores I visited are handling reopening guidelines very well.

The ride back...oy. The driver was actually exhorting people to crowd on and use every available seat/space; a few idjits actually ducked under the barrier and plopped themselves in the seats up front. I had some odiferous maskless dillhole in the seat next to me trying his hardest to take over my seat as well. To hear a fellow passenger put it: "50% capacity does not mean you can fill that 50% up 110%." Quite a few angry tweets were fired off to the T I'm sure.

[Ceir]

All I can - or will, to avoid Fratching trouble - say is that the pandemic has by now heavily reinforced at least one life lesson: the screaming idiots will always top themselves.

[Victory Sabre]

All I can - or will, to avoid Fratching trouble - say is that the pandemic has by now heavily reinforced at least one life lesson: the screaming idiots will always top themselves.

I'm seeing it way too often these days.

It's taking all I can do not to join them. So far, so good.

[Dreamstalker]

On the whole people have been respectful and surprisingly decent about all this. But a notable few...grrrrrr.

[Ghel]

This is a bit of MiM...

So after just one day of having signs up saying masks are required for entry, we've gone back to "masks are recommended, but not required." Never mind that cases are popping up here and there all around us. Never mind that 90% of the customers who came in Friday were wearing masks. We've already backtracked on that thanks to spineless management. We didn't even have any complaints!

I said I'm going to keep wearing a mask with customers are in the building, and I intend to stick to it.

[Dreamstalker]

I just realized that we have a major sale in September (traditionally we have two a year). Were it up to me, I would see that as a way to drive traffic to the store; we have regular customers who wait for those sales.

If the sale is going ahead, we have to be brought back. D3 can't even handle what's going on now (last time I saw him he actually said he wanted me back because there was 'too much to do')...and he's never actually worked one of these sales so has no clue.

[Victory Sabre]

It's getting harder for me to find the basics for living these days, now that most stores won't allow me in without wearing a mask. I tried wearing one at work once, and it went really badly, as I think I mentioned previously in this thread. There's other reasons I won't wear one, but would go against the rules of the site to mention them. I'm having to adapt, but I should still be able to find anything I need, food wise, it will just take a bit more work, and driving, to get what I need.
Plus I'll be supporting small town grocery stores, and not suppoting big box - so a win/win in my book.

[Food Lady]

The three stores I frequent the most are requiring customers to mask and I'm glad. My own company won't and I won't be there for much longer. I am OK with un-masked people as long as they respect distancing but a lot of our customers need to be 2 feet from me. But the bigger issues are more to do with liquidation. There's bargaining as if it were a yard sale. There are requests for us to hunt merchandise down. We're going out of business; you get what you get. We are busy pushing all this to the floor so you don't keep asking what's in the back. We don't have time to give you a high-end sales experience. We are going to CEASE TO BE in a couple of months.

[dalesys]

... CEASE TO BE in a couple of months.

Talk to the parrot!

[Ghel]

My state will have a mask requirement starting Saturday in all public places. My Branch Manager has decided not to change the signs. We're still going to have it posted that masks are "recommended." I guess if customers pay attention to the news, they'll know that masks are required, but I'm pretty sure the order says we're supposed to put up signs that masks are required.

It's not just the poor response to the pandemic that bothers me, it's the backtracking and flip-flopping on what procedures we're supposed to follow at work.

On a more fun note, I picked up some Star Wars and Maleficent fabric yesterday to make more masks with.

[Valentinian]

I gotta say, coming back to this site after a while away and reading the first couple of pages of this thread now is... painfully funny.

[Pixelated]

Starting next week if you're in the UK you need to wear a mask if you go into a shop/non-residential building. The only exceptions are kids under 10 and anyone who has asthma/COPD/some other medical condition that makes wearing a mask dangerous.*snip*

Interesting omissions. I do understand that you can't get those of toddler or younger age to understand why masks are necessary ... but kids who are old enough to talk?

I've seen that in my store a couple of times: parent (masked), older child or children (masked), aaaand verbal-age child in the buggy, no mask. Couple of times it's been a child too young to talk yet, and while I understand the they CAN'T understand ... again ... WTF?

Very small children aren't immune to COVID. I don't get it.

And yes, I do understand that not everybody has the option to leave their kid(s) at home when they go shopping. But this does not always apply.

I also understand people want to GTFO of the house now and again. But ...

[greek_jester]

It's because you can reason logically with most kids age 10 and over, but under that is hit and miss. Think about how much fun parents have trying to get younger kids to keep their shoes/socks/clothes on, then add to that a mask... *shudders*

[Victory Sabre]

My state, which is the same one Ghel is in, has a mandatory mask policy going into effect tomorrow. I'm beyond depressed by this. The only thing that will keep me going is travel out of state, to just be able to do basic human things.

I just don't know how much more of this insanity, and stupidity I can take. I'm pretty much convinced I'll be leaving the state I've lived in all my life, and moving to South Dakota where I'll fit in better.

[Kittykat]

Why not just wear the mask? Honest question, not being sarcastic.