The purpose of this post is to document the surreal world we’ve now become used to, and to compare life in America today to Australia. I wonder if things has gone this far down there?
Going out now requires a mask. You can’t go anywhere without one, nor would you want to. It’s the best defense against covid if you’ll be near strangers!
Some shops limit the number of people in them, whilst others remind you of the rules upon entering. It’s virtually impossible where I live to visit any store without being confronted with Covid signage.
Once you’re inside any decent sized store you’re continuously reminded of the rules. You’d have to be willfully ignorant (or just malicious) to not be aware of what is expected.
There’s even reminders on the price checkers, shopping carts and cash register screens!
If for some reason you just shuffle along with your eyes on the ground don’t worry: signage on the floor reminds you of social distancing and the one-way rules for the shopping aisles:
And of course the direction signs are on the aisles as well:
The products for sale have changed as well, mostly to accommodate a society that eats more meals at home than they have in decades. But the biggest obvious change is in hand sanitizer. Where before there was a tiny section, now it looks like this:
And it goes on and on. It’s difficult to pay with cash now; stores have all adopted touch-free payment systems. Stores have self-serve cleaning sections at the entrance to clean carts and hands. Meat, fish and deli counters are mostly replaced with pre-packaged portions. PA systems remind shoppers of social distancing rules.
Even the loos have rules posted!
Looking at it objectively it’s so weird and if you could pull someone through time from a year ago they’d be flabbergasted by what they see. But for us of course this is now the new normal, and the day this all goes away will be the new strange.
Let’s hope that day isn’t too far away.
The one way aisles is interesting, I hadn’t heard of that. But then I haven’t been inside a structure other than my house since March. ?