Some changes are big, some are small. I can't wear my mala beads anymore because of the gloves I now need for work - the bracelet has fallen off twice and I worry that next time I won't find it again.
Customers are now standing behind the floor lines of their own volition. It's only taken them three days to learn. Asking them to step back has taught them that this disease is serious. It has all moved them up a level in their internal "taking things more seriously" meters. We now have a "cleaning station" for their shopping baskets and their hands. Almost nobody is using it. But that will change in a day or so, I am sure.
We are getting perspex screens around the tills at work any moment now. This move is so in-your-face that I expect it to prompt people to ratchet up another level, ie, they'll start wearing masks and wiping their basket handles down with anti-bac.
Major supermarkets have reduced their opening hours. We expect ours to follow suit shortly.
Son and four other new staff started today, I spent the whole day training them on the tills. Trying to listen to three tills at once, my brain is now leaking out the side of my head. I'm mentally shattered. Still, it is nice to be useful.
More and more it is sinking in that we are key workers. The bakery has closed, the takeaways are all on the brink. But people need supermarkets. We need to keep our work ID with us in case we're stopped by the police - who are now cruising the main street and dispersing anyone out without a valid reason.
The footpaths are basically empty save for an occasional dog walker. The lack of people outdoors is eerie.
I think that fines and a tougher lockdown are coming this week. And possibly no more cash transactions.
Stop Press: we now require every person to use the sanitiser gel on their hands as they enter. Very few of them even hesitate. I have been referred to as "the hand gel police", and by one amused customer as "a bully that he wouldn't dare argue with" 😅
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