However, some worker experts, union leaders and small grocery owners believe it has become too dangerous to let customers browse aisles, coming into close range with workers. Grocery stores are still flooded with customers, and experts say it's time for large chains to go "dark" to the public and convert to curbside pickup and home delivery for food and other essential goods.
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-Mark
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Sorry, but stores rely heavily on impulse buying for profit which is evidenced by end-cap displays.
Seriously, how many times have you gone to the store with a shopping list and end up spending half again as much buying shit that wasn't on your list? And it's not just candy and chips, it's stuff that you forgot you were out of until you saw it at the store - stuff you don't need right now but hey! you're out of it or close to it, you see it, so you might as well buy it while you're there. And how about when you go to Aisle 7 to buy something that you know for a fact is in Aisle 7 but overnight the entire aisle has been rearranged with something completely different? That's done on purpose so you'll have to walk past and see stuff you ordinarily don't buy - again, they're taking advantage of that impulse buying thing.
And regardless of what the article says about small grocery stores supporting this, I doubt it - their profit margin is much smaller than larger retailers because they don't buy as much in bulk, so they end up keeping prices as low as they can to compete with the chains which causes their profits to take a hit right out the gate. This will drive the locally owned grocers out of business in no time.
I tried ordering from Walmart to see if it was worthwhile. Got two boxes, both boxes were damaged and items in both boxes were unusable. Not worth the hassle to get a return authorization, repackage them and get them back to Fed Ex. Learned a lesson. I'll just put on my mask and go in town to the Piggly Wiggly.
ReplyDeleteThese scum sucking REgressives aren't going to be happy until all of us are living in dark, unheated/cooled homes living on algae cakes.
ReplyDeleteThe masks are pointless. N95 masks are 6 micron and the corona virus is 3 microns. Granted it might stop some but it sure as fook ain't impenetrable.
N95 masks are .3 micron. The virus is .16 micron by itself. Carried on a fluid droplet it is 1 - 6 micron. Without a fluid droplet the virus particle isn't carried on air currents and it dessicates and dies almost immediately.
DeleteMost people I've seen aren't wearing N95 masks correctly.
DeleteI see guys with beards wearing N95 masks. Which is fine as a fashion statement, but bullshit in terms of mask function. I see people pulling aside their masks to take a drag on their cigarette. I see people moving their masks to pick their damn nose. And the best is people taking off their mask to cough or sneeze.
Unless you've been fit tested recently, and for the specific brand/make of the mask you have, the main function of a mask is twofold: 1) keeps YOUR snot and spit from getting on other people, 2) keeps you from touching your nose and mouth (unless your one of those smokers or nosepickers or whatever). No training, no discipline means a mask is mostly a fashion statement in terms of protecting YOU. You wear a mask mostly to protect others, and to keep your dirty mitts away from your face (which admittedly IS useful, and probably of a protection than the supposed air-filtration of the mask).
My beard is a good 8 inches long so I don't wear a mask. My wife wants me to wear one but she also doesn't want me to shave my beard off. You can't have things both ways, Woman.
DeleteThere's a reason the military makes you shave every day - so your gas mask gets a good seal.
Kenny, that is a feature, not a bug. The larger chains want the small mom and pop stores to fold. That has been done since time immemorial. Fuck the little guy, greedy, stump sucking corporations.
ReplyDeleteWhat you wrote about impulse buying and end displays shows a high level of knowledge of retail sales. Seemingly everyone looks down on retail but it's the engine which drives the economy. Asshole politicians will never understand this basic concept.
ReplyDeleteThe other Rick
Trust me, I know all about fuckers trying to take my money from me.
Delete"Dozens of grocery store workers have died"
ReplyDeleteAnd how many would have died if they weren't working in the grocery store. This snowflakiness we're living in is really beginning to chafe my ass. Toughen up America. Our forefathers are spinning in their graves at the fearful lives we live.
"Dozens" have died. OK, let's assume it's under 100, call it 8-dozen. 2.5M people work in grocery stores. My trusty calculator says that's a death rate of 0.00392% Now, let's look at the general population. As of today there are 44.2K US deaths out of a population of (IIRC) 328M. That's a death rate of 0.013475%. Grocery workers have 1/3 the death rate of the general population. Maybe contact with others isn't the problem?
ReplyDeleteAnd what Cederq said. Consider the Seattle buddies: Gates and Bezos.
Much of the major chain's income is derived from shelf placement. Companies pay stores to stock their product at the optimum height (there's often a bidding war for the best spaces) to catch the customer's eye. Curbside pickup cuts that revenue stream as well. If there are too many cuts to major income sources, the major chains will aim their campaign contributions to new candidates that promise to open things back up. Existing politicians know this and will find a way to respin things to prove that opening the stores completely is the best way to go.
ReplyDeleteSimple solution: Stock shelves while store is closed at night
ReplyDeleteWe have three grocery stores that we use in our area: a Bell's (local chain), Publix and two Krogers. Bell's first started with making you wait until someone opened the door. Otherwise nothing else. Publix has arrows on the floor, I assume to have everyone traveling in the same direction but no instruction or enforcement. A visit to Publix is like any other day except they are wiping down the carts. Can't tell the difference at Kroger. I went to the larger one Wednesday and it was very busy and except for shortages of paper products it was just like before the collapse again, except for wiping down the carts. I told my wife that this proves that the contagion is crap. We're both in our 70's and we'll take our chances.
ReplyDeleteI never buy anything that is not on my list.
ReplyDeleteMy wife used to be like that.
DeleteImpulse items were added to the list, then checked off.
"Dozens of grocery store workers have died from the coronavirus ..."
ReplyDeleteIt's CNN, and their "experts" are almost certainly extreme Left activists, so let's just call bullschiff on this right out of the gate.
I got thrown out of my first grocery store last week. Went to the truck and grabbed an old bandana and kinda tied it around my jaw/beard and went back it. What a fucking joke this all is!
ReplyDeleteRooster