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Experts say it may be time for grocery stores to ban customers from coming inside

navii

My fantasy is that my girlfriend was actually a young high school girl.
I find cunts in face masks are the ones who get too close to me out in public. One even bumped into me. So you are wearing a face mask cos you are worried you will catch the virus, yet you are not worried enough to keep a mandated social distance?
 

Tigerlord

Member
Being that I work at a supermarket, we put plexiglass at all the registers, blue tape marking safe distance
from the registers, also having the cashiers sanitize the registers after every customer. A cashier at a sister
store was infected, which made the owner put up the precautions. We also have delivery and shop at home
for online shopping.
 
I started working at a grocery store recently and something has gotta give. We offer curb side pickup with online ordering but we were packed inside today. In produce alone we must have had 40 people cramped together.

edit: While it would be difficult for some people I do think there at least needs to be a larger implementation of only 1 person per shopping cart. People taking their whole families of 3-4 people or whatever to the grocery store is just too much.
 
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Curbside pickup should be expanded and normalized. Out here it’s all booked up still, and it’s about a week lead time to get an Instacart delivery.

This makes the most sense. All the cashiers and floor workers could do fulfillment of online orders. No need to lay people off that way.

That is if they go the route of closing stores off to the public. I’d prefer they stay open myself.
 
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I want to get me some of dat sweet orange chicken from trader Joe's but lately every time I pass by there is a line outside. Fuck that
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
I started working at a grocery store recently and something has gotta give. We offer curb side pickup with online ordering but we were packed inside today. In produce alone we must have had 40 people cramped together.

edit: While it would be difficult for some people I do think there at least needs to be a larger implementation of only 1 person per shopping cart. People taking their whole families of 3-4 people or whatever to the grocery store is just too much.
Good point on edit. Wife should write up a list for the hubby or vice versa. No need for both to go for instance.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
This makes the most sense. All the cashiers and floor workers could do fulfillment of online orders. No need to lay people off that way.

That is if they go the route of closing stores off to the public. I’d prefer they stay open myself.

There could be union problems with making the cushy checker job forced to do something else.
 

Cato

Banned
Supermarkets run on razor thin margins, typically 1-3%. Personal shopping requires labor, and labor costs money. That needs to be passed along to the consumer one way or another, either by service charge or increased prices for the items themselves.

True, but there is a solution that provides "free" personal shopping without incurring a cost to the store.
1, Everyone is banned from leaving the house for any reason whatsoever. Nail the doors shut from outside if that is what it takes.
2, Everyone gets ONE slot for grocery shopping per week.
3, The army will pick the items at the store and deliver the groceries to your house. Once per week.

EDIT: I would like to see it tried in a western city. And how people would justify it "because if not you want granny to die!"
It would be funny and sad to watch people defend such overreactions and measures.
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
True, but there is a solution that provides "free" personal shopping without incurring a cost to the store.
1, Everyone is banned from leaving the house for any reason whatsoever. Nail the doors shut from outside if that is what it takes.
2, Everyone gets ONE slot for grocery shopping per week.
3, The army will pick the items at the store and deliver the groceries to your house. Once per week.

EDIT: I would like to see it tried in a western city. And how people would justify it "because if not you want granny to die!"
It would be funny and sad to watch people defend such overreactions and measures.

Right, the time to do this was like 2 months ago though, if we were going to do it.

The media has shifted into this absolutely insane "any new COVID case is DEFCON 1" frame, seemingly forgetting this is a virus.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
This will never happen IMO. How else would it work? Any other system you'd have people waiting outside for hours to get their groceries and it will deter people from buying food and supplies, people will starve. At some point someone has to go in and get the damn groceries, whether it's customers or workers. What difference does it make.
 

LOLCats

Banned
Not sure if agree with that. People still need to get essential food to survive. I think every store should offer pick up services at no extra charge.
right now they are not set up to offer it for free, at kroger for example they have employees that fill pickup orders from the isles with carts. they would need to create a whole back area system that was streamlined and efficient to not lose money on labor.
 
right now they are not set up to offer it for free, at kroger for example they have employees that fill pickup orders from the isles with carts. they would need to create a whole back area system that was streamlined and efficient to not lose money on labor.

You would be surprised at the amount of labor it takes to pull grocery orders. Especially since grocery stores take food safety very seriously. For instance you can't pull dry items with refrigerated and frozen because there's too much of a risk of spoilage. Someone will pull the dry of an order, another the refrigerated, and another the frozen.

For example at my store we pull 4 orders of dry per batch, then someone else pulls 4 orders of refrigerated and another 4 of frozen. Then you have additional labor being used for pulling the order from the staging area to gather it up to bring out to someones car. Plus you have supervisors/leads who solely stay in the back to manage order flow and stay on the phones for customer pickup. Couple all of that with pullers having to pull orders on the floor with customers shopping and it quickly adds up in labor costs.
 

Moogle11

Banned
I find cunts in face masks are the ones who get too close to me out in public. One even bumped into me. So you are wearing a face mask cos you are worried you will catch the virus, yet you are not worried enough to keep a mandated social distance?

Yeah, that's likely part of why they were slow to suggest/require people were face coverings. It tends to create a false sense of security in people and make them more likely to go out when they don't truly need to and more likely to not properly socially distance when out as they think they're safe due to the mask. Outside of good N95 masks we're being asked to wear them more to keep our droplets that may be infected from spreading as far, not to keep the virus from getting inside ourselves. It may help with the latter some, but it's more to limit spreading to others.

As for the solution to grocery shopping, there really isn't one better than what they're doing around here. Limit how many people are inside, have markings to make the aisles one way and to show proper distances to stay apart at checkouts. Ideally they should offer paid leave for any employees who are in high risk groups and higher some younger, healthy low risk temp workers if needed. But we have few workers rights here so many are probably faced with either coming to work or getting fired for not showing up (and thus being ineligible for unemployment since they were fired and not laid off).
 
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I haven't been in a store that's been packed yet. I am selective on when and where I go to grocery shop though.

However, I tend to browse to find what I want. I have one or two meal ideas and then expand according to whats on sale or available. This is what they would lose in sales by being curbside pick-up only.

BTW, the title implies experts. It's their unions demanding this over dozens of deaths (statistically small). While I do believe curbside should be the standard as its safest, there is a bit of panic involved in this.
 

Moogle11

Banned
I haven't been in a store that's been packed yet. I am selective on when and where I go to grocery shop though.

The main issue I've had at my local grocery store is the produce section. Like most that area is a cramped corner and it's most always busy and people end up getting right next to you even going at less busy times. The deli line tends to be long as well, with people too close together, but I don't buy stuff there. I don't get the fascination with Publix subs (just never buy sandwiches period as I eat so many self made ones for work lunches I never want them other times) and don't like fried chicken, and those two are the main draw.

To be fair, while this store has the floor markings to make aisles one way and the spacing markers at checkout, they aren't limiting how many people are inside at once. Things would probably be better if they were, as long as they made sure the outside line had markers to keep people apart.
 
I haven't been in a store that's been packed yet. I am selective on when and where I go to grocery shop though.

However, I tend to browse to find what I want. I have one or two meal ideas and then expand according to whats on sale or available. This is what they would lose in sales by being curbside pick-up only.

BTW, the title implies experts. It's their unions demanding this over dozens of deaths (statistically small). While I do believe curbside should be the standard as its safest, there is a bit of panic involved in this.

I have 5 grocery stores (inc. Walmart and Target) within 2 miles of me. However, it doesn't matter what time you go, there is still no TP and these places are packed to capacity now more than ever before and it doesn't even matter what time you try to go. They all close early to so if you are lucky, as I am, to be working from home you pretty much have an afterwork window. You are going to spend more time during "classic business hours" at the store than every before because of all the moms or dads who have a spouse working can shop during the day. So going during "lunch time" is a no go.

At night, it's still packed because you have all the road workers, construction crews and other essential employees, and people who think its going to be quieter to go at night trying to get in before they close. Truth is its not. I have 4 rolls of TP left and I've tried for a month to get some. On our works collaboration tool we've got little groups now talking about where and when they last saw TP. I mean... a fucking month of this and its still MIA for us here.

Oh and they are limiting how many of certain things you can buy still.
 

Hari Seldon

Member
The grocery store employees are infected because the cocksuckers lied about the fucking masks. They should have been in masks a month ago.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I work with computers and helping end users.

If grocery stores required people to purchase online, millions of Americans would literally starve to death because they would be too stupid to figure out how it works.
 

Djau

Banned
I work with computers and helping end users.

If grocery stores required people to purchase online, millions of Americans would literally starve to death because they would be too stupid to figure out how it works.

Absolutely correct. The only reliable thing in the world is the absolute utter stupidity of upper management and common folk.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Nah, this ain't happening. They aren't going to be able to keep pushing people like this and need to stop floating this kind of nonsense.
 

Raven117

Member
Nah. The US is flattening the curve. What we did worked. To everyone’s credit. We don’t need MORE restrictions. In some places we need to start opening back up. (Some places not all).

The whole effing deal was protect the healthcare system. We did that. It was never “no one can get sick.”
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
It’s not going to happen

What would be a great idea, is if there were a team of authorized health officials that could issue fines to motherfuckers not keeping their distance
 

DKehoe

Member
Out for a walk earlier and a hardware store around the corner from me is now doing this. They’ve got a desk set up across the doorway and you just tell them what you’re looking for and a member of staff goes and gets it for you.
 

Lanrutcon

Member
Nah. The US is flattening the curve. What we did worked. To everyone’s credit. We don’t need MORE restrictions. In some places we need to start opening back up. (Some places not all).

I don't get this sentiment. Curve is flattened, great. So what? That's like, step 1. It always was. It was the initial reaction, the first response, only part of the plan. Did it work? Awesome. Did we win? The fight ain't even done yet and folks are planning parades. Who the hell was stupid enough to think staying at home for a month was all this would take? That curve isn't set in stone just because everyone sat watching TV for 4 weeks.
 

Ionian

Member
I have 5 grocery stores (inc. Walmart and Target) within 2 miles of me. However, it doesn't matter what time you go, there is still no TP and these places are packed to capacity now more than ever before and it doesn't even matter what time you try to go. They all close early to so if you are lucky, as I am, to be working from home you pretty much have an afterwork window. You are going to spend more time during "classic business hours" at the store than every before because of all the moms or dads who have a spouse working can shop during the day. So going during "lunch time" is a no go.

At night, it's still packed because you have all the road workers, construction crews and other essential employees, and people who think its going to be quieter to go at night trying to get in before they close. Truth is its not. I have 4 rolls of TP left and I've tried for a month to get some. On our works collaboration tool we've got little groups now talking about where and when they last saw TP. I mean... a fucking month of this and its still MIA for us here.

Oh and they are limiting how many of certain things you can buy still.

Thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.

The lack of TP truly is the worst of this pandemic.

I'm wearing a washable nappy, might be worth a shot for you.
 

oagboghi2

Member
I don't get this sentiment. Curve is flattened, great. So what? That's like, step 1. It always was. It was the initial reaction, the first response, only part of the plan. Did it work? Awesome. Did we win? The fight ain't even done yet and folks are planning parades. Who the hell was stupid enough to think staying at home for a month was all this would take? That curve isn't set in stone just because everyone sat watching TV for 4 weeks.
No no no fuck off with this rewriting history. The people pushing this lockdown said it would take weeks of a lockdown to flatten the curve, and get past the peak.

They didn't say lockdowns were going to last into perpetuity
 
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Let individual grocery stores close if they feel like they are getting too much traffic. Allow stores to keep their doors open with reasonable self-imposed cleaning guidelines.

It's remarkable to me that some people will preach about the danger of coronavirus itself but when it comes to the damage the Wuhan flu lockdown is causing to society (economic damage, encroachment on personal freedoms, long-term viability, etc) there is very little concern for that kind of damage taking place.

People gotta work. People gotta eat. People gotta be able to go to a central repository to pick up food or they'll steal from neighbors. Most don't have the know-how to produce their own food.
 

StormCell

Member
Curbside pickup should be expanded and normalized. Out here it’s all booked up still, and it’s about a week lead time to get an Instacart delivery.

This. It's the thing I thought Walmart would be on top of. Instead of Amazon reaping such huge benefits from this pandemic, I would have expected Walmart curb-side pickup to become immensely huge. Instead... we get a much longer wait time and no expansion of the service. Who is running this company??
 

Lanrutcon

Member
No no no fuck off with this rewriting history. The people pushing this lockdown said it would take weeks of a lockdown to flatten the curve, and get past the peak.

They didn't say lockdowns were going to last into perpetuity

"Those people" would be professionals a shitload more qualified than you and me. They never said that this single lockdown was all that it would take. You just said it yourself: get past the peak. This isn't even remotely over. Not calling you out or trying to fuck with you here: but did you legitimately think we'd sit indoors for a few weeks and then get back to normal? Even remotely close to normal?

Nobody likes this shit, but if you turn your head even slightly the very real danger of undoing what's been accomplished is right there. We jump the gun and it's going to be even more lockdowns. You ready to spend June and July reliving April? Cause the economy sure isn't. Fuck knows if it's going to survive this month, but it definitely won't survive a resurgence of the disease.

I absolutely 100% would not mind being wrong about any of this, but the moment the lockdown drops everyone is going to go out and party their asses of. The country will socialize like crazy. Consider how the curve is going to look after a week of that.
 

Raven117

Member
I don't get this sentiment. Curve is flattened, great. So what? That's like, step 1. It always was. It was the initial reaction, the first response, only part of the plan. Did it work? Awesome. Did we win? The fight ain't even done yet and folks are planning parades. Who the hell was stupid enough to think staying at home for a month was all this would take? That curve isn't set in stone just because everyone sat watching TV for 4 weeks.
The fight is not over, you are correct. I’m also not suggesting that we flip a switch and get right back to the way things were. Between observing social distancing, mandatory mask wearing, and other less draconian measures, we can begin opening the country with a close eye on hospitalizations (and tests one we get that straight) to make sure it remains under control. It’s a regional call. Texas and many states in the west can really start to look at this. East coast (nyc) not so much.
 

Raven117

Member
"Those people" would be professionals a shitload more qualified than you and me. They never said that this single lockdown was all that it would take. You just said it yourself: get past the peak. This isn't even remotely over. Not calling you out or trying to fuck with you here: but did you legitimately think we'd sit indoors for a few weeks and then get back to normal? Even remotely close to normal?

Nobody likes this shit, but if you turn your head even slightly the very real danger of undoing what's been accomplished is right there. We jump the gun and it's going to be even more lockdowns. You ready to spend June and July reliving April? Cause the economy sure isn't. Fuck knows if it's going to survive this month, but it definitely won't survive a resurgence of the disease.

I absolutely 100% would not mind being wrong about any of this, but the moment the lockdown drops everyone is going to go out and party their asses of. The country will socialize like crazy. Consider how the curve is going to look after a week of that.
I hear ya. But this isn’t what is being proposed. Are you in the East coast? East coast is looking at a bigger problem than the rest of the country. Look at the models for texas and some other western states. Yeah, we can begin to slowly reopen. (Bars will be closed for awhile).
 

Raven117

Member
Let individual grocery stores close if they feel like they are getting too much traffic. Allow stores to keep their doors open with reasonable self-imposed cleaning guidelines.

It's remarkable to me that some people will preach about the danger of coronavirus itself but when it comes to the damage the Wuhan flu lockdown is causing to society (economic damage, encroachment on personal freedoms, long-term viability, etc) there is very little concern for that kind of damage taking place.

People gotta work. People gotta eat. People gotta be able to go to a central repository to pick up food or they'll steal from neighbors. Most don't have the know-how to produce their own food.
And to suggest otherwise makes you a monster.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
The wait times would be insane. I tried to get some stuff delivered last week. Couldn't get a delivery for four days. Between the waits and the lack of infrastructure for certain people I think it would be a disaster.

Limiting people in stores seems like a better option. Make face covering mandatory as well
 

Lanrutcon

Member
I hear ya. But this isn’t what is being proposed. Are you in the East coast? East coast is looking at a bigger problem than the rest of the country. Look at the models for texas and some other western states. Yeah, we can begin to slowly reopen. (Bars will be closed for awhile).

Every state is definitely going to need to take an approach based on their stats, the stats of their neighbors, etc. Bars, sure. Schools?
 
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