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Supermarket Update

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Gloster

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The local Morrison’s is also reducing its measures. For the last few months the narrower (about 1 metre wide) door at one end has been closed and everybody uses the other one, which has a sort of lobby on the outside. It was in on the righthand side of the lobby and out on the left, with it divided into two halves (and usually with a member of staff pointing out where the sanitiser was); there would be security, and sometimes staff, standing just inside the main doors. Now the other door is open, all the entrances can be used without restriction, the staff have disappeared and the security have retreated to their screens.
 
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swj99

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Our local Co-op has a box just inside the door, which I think is meant to automatically work out how many people are in the shop. It counts the people as they walk past it and there are red and green lights. Nobody takes a blind bit of notice of it. The lights hardly ever work, and usually once you've gone past it, it says, "Next customer please !" or some other irrelevant drivel.
The shop also has floor markings indicating a one way system, which again, hardly anyone bothers with.
I have a medical exemption from wearing masks, and in all the time since masks have been a thing, it's only been mentioned to me about three times. The first was in a charity shop. I wear a clip on card which clearly states I'm medically exempt, but one member of staff said, "Have you got a mask ?" so I replied, "No."
Then another member of staff asked the same question, so I gave the same answer, because I don't have one. Then he said, "You need to wear a mask or you're not allowed in."
I replied, "No I don't, because I'm exempt.

The second time was in a branch of another well known convenience store. Again, I was wearing the clip on card stating that I'm exempt. A member of staff said, "Haven't you got a mask ?" to which I replied, "No."
She said, "Do you want one ?"
I replied, "No thanks, I'm exempt."
Despite this, she said, "But you have to wear one or you're not allowed in."
I repeated that I was exempt, and she got quite irate and said, "But you have to wear a mask or you aren't allowed in !"
I again told her I was exempt. She walked up quite close to me and said in a very hostile tone, "If you don't wear a mask, you can't come in !"
I was fed up with this so I unclipped the card, held it up to her and said, "I'm exempt, sod off, go away !"
She said, "Right, I'm going to get the manager."
A spotty teenaged relief manager appeared at some point while I was at the till, so when I'd paid, I went up to him and said, "What's her problem ?"
He said, "We take the health and safety of our staff and customers very seriously."
I replied, "And so you should. And I do not appreciate being pestered when I'm going about my lawful business."
He quietly said, "Yes, fair enough !"

The most recent and also most surreal one was this. A guy in the queue behind me in a Co-op last week asked me if I was exempt from wearing a mask. I was wearing the clip on card stating that I'm exempt for medical reasons. I said yes. He said, "So am I. But I still wear one."
When I asked him why, he said, "Because I want to help prevent the spread of covid."
I said, "Obviously you don't have to answer this question, but why are you exempt ?"
He said it was because he'd had lung cancer, so we chatted about that for a while, and I told him a relative of mine had recently been diagnosed.

What I find most odd about the mask thing is the number of them I see literally thrown on the floor all over the place. Surely if it was that contagious, there would be biohazard bins literally everywhere, and severe penalties for anyone discarding them anywhere else. Does the virus die upon impact with tarmac or something ?
 

boyaloud

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20 Mar 2013
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271
Our local Co-op has a box just inside the door, which I think is meant to automatically work out how many people are in the shop. It counts the people as they walk past it and there are red and green lights. Nobody takes a blind bit of notice of it. The lights hardly ever work, and usually once you've gone past it, it says, "Next customer please !" or some other irrelevant drivel.
The shop also has floor markings indicating a one way system, which again, hardly anyone bothers with.
I have a medical exemption from wearing masks, and in all the time since masks have been a thing, it's only been mentioned to me about three times. The first was in a charity shop. I wear a clip on card which clearly states I'm medically exempt, but one member of staff said, "Have you got a mask ?" so I replied, "No."
Then another member of staff asked the same question, so I gave the same answer, because I don't have one. Then he said, "You need to wear a mask or you're not allowed in."
I replied, "No I don't, because I'm exempt.

The second time was in a branch of another well known convenience store. Again, I was wearing the clip on card stating that I'm exempt. A member of staff said, "Haven't you got a mask ?" to which I replied, "No."
She said, "Do you want one ?"
I replied, "No thanks, I'm exempt."
Despite this, she said, "But you have to wear one or you're not allowed in."
I repeated that I was exempt, and she got quite irate and said, "But you have to wear a mask or you aren't allowed in !"
I again told her I was exempt. She walked up quite close to me and said in a very hostile tone, "If you don't wear a mask, you can't come in !"
I was fed up with this so I unclipped the card, held it up to her and said, "I'm exempt, sod off, go away !"
She said, "Right, I'm going to get the manager."
A spotty teenaged relief manager appeared at some point while I was at the till, so when I'd paid, I went up to him and said, "What's her problem ?"
He said, "We take the health and safety of our staff and customers very seriously."
I replied, "And so you should. And I do not appreciate being pestered when I'm going about my lawful business."
He quietly said, "Yes, fair enough !"

The most recent and also most surreal one was this. A guy in the queue behind me in a Co-op last week asked me if I was exempt from wearing a mask. I was wearing the clip on card stating that I'm exempt for medical reasons. I said yes. He said, "So am I. But I still wear one."
When I asked him why, he said, "Because I want to help prevent the spread of covid."
I said, "Obviously you don't have to answer this question, but why are you exempt ?"
He said it was because he'd had lung cancer, so we chatted about that for a while, and I told him a relative of mine had recently been diagnosed.

What I find most odd about the mask thing is the number of them I see literally thrown on the floor all over the place. Surely if it was that contagious, there would be biohazard bins literally everywhere, and severe penalties for anyone discarding them anywhere else. Does the virus die upon impact with tarmac or something ?
A very well-written analysis of mask insanity - I wish everyone would have researched for themselves that not only are they not effective, they are actually causing harm to both physical and mental health. But everyone just does as they're told and thinks they're genuinely being helpful and "doing their bit". The SAGE manipulation is horrendous.
 

Jamiescott1

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This video is doing the rounds today or 2 hysteric shop keepers in a Southend Nisa refusing service to someone not wearing a mask

(Sorry don't know how to imbed video)
 

LAX54

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It seems to have been 'forgotten' that you only really need a mask, so they said, if you are within 1 metre (although the UK chose 2 metres) for more than 15 mins.
Supermarket checkout I have never been more than 15 mins !

This video is doing the rounds today or 2 hysteric shop keepers in a Southend Nisa refusing service to someone not wearing a mask

(Sorry don't know how to imbed video)
Should have videoed the outside of the shop, to show everyone where in Southend it is !
 
Last edited:

Jamiescott1

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22 Feb 2019
Messages
951
It seems to have been 'forgotten' that you only really need a mask, so they said, if you are within 1 metre (although the UK chose 2 metres) for more than 15 mins.
Supermarket checkout I have never been more than 15 mins !


Should have videoed the outside of the shop, to show everyone where in Southend it is !

The address is posted in the comments on the YouTube video
 

bramling

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This video is doing the rounds today or 2 hysteric shop keepers in a Southend Nisa refusing service to someone not wearing a mask

(Sorry don't know how to imbed video)

So the guy is such a hazard that they spent several minutes in his face, rather than just letting him quickly buy his milk and go.

But of course masks are now part of the Covid cult.
 

py_megapixel

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None of the large supermarkets near where I live seem to be doing anything special apart from screens between the self-service checkout and some bottles of hand sanitiser at the entrance.
The exception is Sainsbury's - I'm fairly sure if they went bankrupt then the company which makes Tensabarriers would be soon to follow :D

Most of the smaller convenience store type places (including the Co-op which I've ranted about on this forum in the past) still have their one way systems, on the other hand.
 

swj99

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Messages
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This video is doing the rounds today or 2 hysteric shop keepers in a Southend Nisa refusing service to someone not wearing a mask

(Sorry don't know how to imbed video)
There was a similar discussion on facebook yesterday about a Burger King employee refusing to serve someone who was exempt from wearing a mask. I spent at least half an hour blocking people who were abusing the victim and accusing her of being an anti masker and an anti vaxxer. I reported several posts to facebook as disability hate speech, but despite most of the comments being virtually the same, some were removed and some weren't. It seems to be the luck of the draw which ones get removed and which don't. As an indication of how nasty some of the comments were, the whole thread seems to have been removed now. Did anyone else see it ?
 

_toommm_

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There are regularly queues at the Waitrose store near me when it appears to be none too busy inside. I and other customers walk away and do their shopping at the other four supermarkets that are all within walking distance of the Waitrose. They seem intent on shooting themselves in the foot when you look at the precarious state of their partnership.

You’d be surprised how busy it can feel inside though, especially if you have to work in there. The problem is people move through in waves, so the first aisle might not seem busy (giving the impression the store isn’t busy) but there’ll be an aisle or three that are actually rammed.

We’re encouraged to step out of the aisles when it gets too busy, and we do regularly have to. One of the ones I worked at had a capacity of 65 customers (which is actually a lot) and there’d be queues from 9am to 6pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Once you factor in Partners working in the shop, like I say it can get very cosy. If the store is too busy, we get it in the neck from customers. If the store seems not busy, we get it in the neck from customers.
 

krus_aragon

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On my way to Tesco in this morning I noticed that there is still "crowd control" outside the M&S Food Store in Falkirk - ie people having to wait presumably for others to exit the store so they can enter.
The Llandudno branch has had queues for the food hall since before Christmas. Back then, shoppers aiming for the clothing floors could go straight in via another entrance.

I don't wander past very often, and was surprised that they still had food hall queues in March. It's the only shop I've seen such queues at (other than takeaways on a Friday evening).

One thing which the virtue-signallers have failed to answer, is how can one person negotiate the checkout once the conveyer belt is full, apart from having to pack and then return to unloading the trolley, which is extremely time consuming and awkward.
I may or may not be one of the virtue-signallers* you describe, but I've spent the past year getting very good at ping-ponging between each end of the checkout, especially as I've been shopping for two households throughout. Load the conveyor, go bag things that have been scanned, rush back to continue emptying the trolley. I occasionally comment to the checkout staff that I look forward to when I can bring my family of grocery packers with me!

(My kids have only been inside a shop once in the past year, and that was for a shoe fitting after two successive online orders - with home measuring kit - hadn't gotten a fit for his high arches.)

From September through December, as I was heading out to teach most days, I started doing my in-laws' shopping on a different evening, mainly to avoid the hassles of working off two lists and keeping the shopping separate in the trolley. Having switched back to working from home since January, it's been back to one weekly shop. With education opening up again now, I'll probably spread them out again.


*can you play them on SimSig?
 

greyman42

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You’d be surprised how busy it can feel inside though, especially if you have to work in there. The problem is people move through in waves, so the first aisle might not seem busy (giving the impression the store isn’t busy) but there’ll be an aisle or three that are actually rammed.

We’re encouraged to step out of the aisles when it gets too busy, and we do regularly have to. One of the ones I worked at had a capacity of 65 customers (which is actually a lot) and there’d be queues from 9am to 6pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Once you factor in Partners working in the shop, like I say it can get very cosy. If the store is too busy, we get it in the neck from customers. If the store seems not busy, we get it in the neck from customers.
Well i never saw anybody getting it in the neck, just customers walking away to do their shopping elsewhere.
 

Jamesrob637

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A minuscule queue for my nearest large Tesco today - measurable literally in seconds and single-digit numbers.

Not bad for a Saturday around 16:00.
 

Pete_uk

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I feel that once the mask requirement is dropped by the government there will be fireworks in some shops. God help the staff!
 

Mcr Warrior

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A minuscule queue for my nearest large Tesco today - measurable literally in seconds and single-digit numbers.

Not bad for a Saturday around 16:00.
Was that partly due to the prevailing weather? Have had both sleety snow and hailstones up North today.
 

Baxenden Bank

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I feel that once the mask requirement is dropped by the government there will be fireworks in some shops. God help the staff!
I admire your optimism!

If the legal requirement for masks is specifically removed, then the government needs to be clear in its messaging - eg no masks ever, masks for those that wish to, masks by everyone (usual exemptions apply) when busy, masks in specific circumstances eg on public transport. Rather than a specific decision, which as you suggest will have a vocal and negative response from those now fixated on masks being the saving of life as we know it, I suspect a slow wind down in messaging and a lack of emphasis until the regulations eventually expire with a whimper ie in the hope that no-one actually notices.

I wear a mask because it is required, although the number of shops I now visit extends to: a large supermarket, a large DIY store and the corner shop. I do not envisage doing any kind of leisure shopping / browsing until I can do so maskless. The combination of a long bus journey to town (masked), shopping (masked) and the journey home (masked) has no appeal to me when I can sit in the house/garden and simply wait for an internet purchase to be delivered.
 

DelayRepay

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I feel that once the mask requirement is dropped by the government there will be fireworks in some shops. God help the staff!
I hope by this you mean the shops will be stocking fireworks which people can use to celebrate the end of mask wearing :)
 

Jamesrob637

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Was that partly due to the prevailing weather? Have had both sleety snow and hailstones up North today.

You mean because people didn't shop yesterday morning owing to the iffy weather? Could've been. In any case I'm due to head to a big Sainsbury's today (first time on a Sunday since possibly pre-COVID) - in a bit in fact - so I'll report here once I'm home.
 

Mcr Warrior

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A minuscule queue for my nearest large Tesco today - measurable literally in seconds and single-digit numbers.

Not bad for a Saturday around 16:00.

You mean because people didn't shop yesterday morning owing to the iffy weather? Could've been.

In any case I'm due to head to a big Sainsbury's today (first time on a Sunday since possibly pre-COVID) - in a bit in fact - so I'll report here once I'm home.

Just how often do you go out shopping? :s
 

Jamesrob637

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Just how often do you go out shopping? :s

Once every couple of days since it doubles up as my daily exercise. Less frequently once back in active work though.

Big Sainsbury's near me around midday - no queue and not busy inside at all despite Sunday trading laws.
 

Mcr Warrior

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Big Sainsbury's near me around midday - no queue and not busy inside at all despite Sunday trading laws.
Be interesting to see just how busy it gets tomorrow (Monday) once "non-essential" shops start to re-open in England. Fancy venturing out again? ;)
 

Jamesrob637

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Be interesting to see just how busy it gets tomorrow (Monday) once "non-essential" shops start to re-open in England. Fancy venturing out again? ;)

I'm actually hoping to hit Sports Direct in Stockport tomorrow! :lol:
 
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