Capacity Limits... in the winter

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storewanderer
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Re: Capacity Limits... in the winter

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: December 8th, 2020, 1:03 pm

A lot of people have been traveling to the states that don't or didn't have mask requirements and they're bringing it back into the communities that do have the requirements.
Well, air travel had its worst day for passenger counts on 12/08 since June... so... people have definitely cut off their traveling. Maybe this will help case spread stop from all those people who have been traveling.

I know a few folks who have taken multiple airplane trips during these months and they have not gotten sick. They are more brave than I am.
Alpha8472
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Re: Capacity Limits... in the winter

Post by Alpha8472 »

I was at Walmart again and the lines to get into the store were long. The inside of the store was a different story. There was plenty of space to socially distance inside and the store was not crowded. The lines at the registers were quite short. It made shopping much more pleasant. However, waiting outside in the cold for a long time is causing many customers to go to other stores. However, since every single store is doing this limiting, there really is no other option. Perhaps supermarkets are not as busy and the wait times may be much less.

Airline travel is a scary situation. If the plane is too crowded and you are sitting next to a person who has COVID, then you are going to catch it. I took American Airlines before the pandemic and the worst part was not the plane ride. The worst part was at Los Angeles International Airport where they made passengers ride crowded little buses to get to the tiny old American Airlines Remote Terminal which was in the middle of the runway separated from the main airport. You ride little buses that drive on the runways right next to big airplanes. I am surprised that no bus has ever collided with an airplane taking off. Then you reach crowded drop off areas and have to wait for buses or Ubers. There was little room to socially distance as everything is so cramped at curbside drop off.

There are restaurants inside the airport that have little space and that is where people are unmasked and eating. Then you walk through the airport where many people are eating or drinking without masks. You cannot enforce mask wearing when so many people are exhausted or hungry and need to eat or drink. Those little convenience shops and stores in the airport are so cramped and tiny that you end up being less than 6 feet from other people.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on December 12th, 2020, 4:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
storewanderer
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Re: Capacity Limits... in the winter

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: December 11th, 2020, 10:30 pm I was at Walmart again and the lines to get into the store were long. The inside of the store was a different story. There was plenty of space to socially distance inside and the store was not crowded. The lines at the registers were quite short. It made shopping much more pleasant. However, waiting outside in the cold for a long time is causing many customers to go to other stores. However, since every single store is doing this limiting, there really is not other option. Perhaps supermarkets are not as busy and the wait times may be much less.

I must be shopping at off times as I have yet to witness any line ups for stores the past couple weeks as capacity limits have decreased. Most of the stores I've been going to are quite deserted. I have in some cases deliberately been picking stores to shop that I know hardly have any customers, the couple of times I've gone to stores in the daytime lately. For instance I went to Scolaris one afternoon, knowing it rarely has more than a few other customers inside, also to that point it seems very safe to buy produce there given how few people are in there to rummage through it. I went to Wal Mart Supercenter a few days ago around 10:15 PM and I don't think there were more than 10 customers total in the entire store. I left at 11 and was the only person checking out. There wasn't even a greeter by the door, there was no cashier, only self checkouts were open.

I did go into some crowded stores around Sacramento last weekend... one of them may have been limiting capacity when I left (or it was closing at 5 PM, not sure what was going on) but was not when I arrived.
Alpha8472
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Re: Capacity Limits... in the winter

Post by Alpha8472 »

A busy Walmart in San Leandro, California had a 30 minute wait to get inside during the day on
Thursday. Last Sunday the lines were crazy. I saw a line of about 100 people trying to get into Burlington. The line was all the way around the store. On Friday, it was raining for the first time in months. It rained most of the day and lines were much shorter.

Overall, these past few days, many stores are much less crowded than before. At night, the lines are shorter. Perhaps the news of the curfew and the news of the rise of cases has caused people to stay at home. It appears to be working. People are staying home more and they are not going out.

I know that COVID has gotten dangerously close to me these past few days. My coworkers got really sick and had to stay at home until they received results of their COVID tests. Luckily, they tested negative. They caught something else that made them have a fever and cough. One was visiting her daughter in the hospital for 3 days straight. The other was holding a birthday party at her house with tons of guests.

My mother had to have emergency surgery Thursday night and my sister stayed with her all night long. They let untested people just walk right in and stay all night in the hospital. This is how everything is spreading like crazy. Then she went to my elderly father's house and potentially exposed him to something. So many people think they are not possible carriers. They need to stay outside.

I do not know about the closing of outdoor dining. If the restaurants are closed for outdoor dining, people will simply go to other people's houses to eat. Now COVID is going to spread even more since people will be eating in stuffy houses indoors instead of outside at restaurants. This will make transmission more likely. I would rather people dine outside at restaurants than eat indoors at houses.
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Re: Capacity Limits... in the winter

Post by Alpha8472 »

I went to Sunvalley Mall Concord, California Saturday night. It was very crowded and you could not maintain 6 feet of distance. Many stores had lines in front and you had hundreds of people passing by less than 6 feet away. This limiting is causing even more problems and crowding.

I noticed that JCPenney had one mall entrance open. The lower level door was closed. Sears had 2 mall entrances and one outside entrance. Sears had virtually no customers, but JCPenney was doing decent business. Sears looked very empty with large empty spaces. The Optical and Eye Doctor were gone. The dentist office and watch repair remain.

Macy's had 2 stores and was doing better than JCPenney. The mall was doing great business and many restaurants that were closed are open for take out. The bad part was there were too many people eating and drinking with their masks down. This mall is a crowded superspreader event. I had to get out of there fast. It was very uncomfortable.

The Safeway in the mall parking lot was a different story. It was not as crowded during the day. Then after the mall closed, the Safeway was quite empty. There was one cashier and the cashier had no customers. People were using the 6 new style self checkouts. Safeway was not doing any customer limiting, but it was because the store was not too busy. There was a security guard at the door as this store is a major homeless shoplifting magnet. A Safeway employee advised me to watch out one time as a homeless guy had just attacked another customer.

Sam's Club was very empty as usual at night. The single cashier had no wait time. The cashier convinced me to upgrade to a Sam's Plus Membership for $12 and she gave me a $10 gift card as a special offer for upgrading. Sam's Club is really empty compare to Costco. Costco is overcrowded, but Sam's Club is just dead most of the time. They must be desperate to get customers to renew their Sam's Club memberships.
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