To think retail staff should have PPE

[fourpeasinapod]

Was at my local Tesco today and it just made me wonder why on Earth they and other retail workers aren’t being provided with PPE.

If NHS staff can be given it then surely shop workers are entitled to it as well.

We do what we are doing and accept there will be losses.

It's not the governments job to supply supermarkets with PPE it's upto the supermarkets to order theirselves. (I work for a company supporting hospitals who order our own PPE).

You are panicking too much.

@HeresMe maybe I am but I would like to see normality to return sometime this year. Will lockdown be fully eradicated before 2020 ends?

Will we get to go shopping and go to restaurants cafes gyms etc sometime this year?

Right now doesn’t seem likely.

We get optional gloves, and hand sanitizer at the tills, and we can come off the till every 2 hours to wash our hands it's too hard to distance from colleagues all day in warehouse or working close by, or passing on the tills etc. Some customers are real good and wait for us to move before passing us if we are working stock, others just walk behind us or worse lean over us (!!) to reach the stock if I'm stood there filling. I'm asthmatic and I do worry a bit

I really feel for retail staff. They are most at risk from customers who just don't obey the 2 metre rule.

@Sparklingbrook I know my ds was in tears as he had so many customers so close to him

Yes, it's hard for them because the customers complain if there's nothing on the shelves to buy but they can't be patient and just wait for the employee to step back so they can grab their item.

I wonder how the staff that do the reductions are getting on.

There is not enough PPE for NHS workers working with covid-19 positive patients why should retail workers get PPE when we can't protect those actually working with ill patients.
Retail workers can protect themselves with social distancing and handwashing like the rest of us

It would be nice if PPE could be provided to retail workers, along with any other key worker who works with the public.

But unfortunately at the minute, there’s not even enough PPE around for NHS staff treating patients with confirmed cases of Covid19.
Given the shortages, priority should go to healthcare workers who are in direct contact with people known to have Covid19.

Is anyone else angry at China for allowing these markets to operate?

I think you can help your son by not catastrophising this. Educate yourself on the stats of the morbidity rate, especially for his age bracket. As many pp have said, the aim of the lockdown is not to eradicate it. Even we went into total lockdown as you suggest, it would still move about in the deliveries etc and the cost to society and the economy as a whole would be disastrous. Unless you or your son have underlying conditions that raise your risk this is where you need to provide a sensible head and some facts about a) the liklihood of him catching it unless someone actually coughed or sneezed on him, he's regularly handwashing and not touching his face b) the most likely outcome if he does catch it which is no, mild or some symptoms but v unlikely to be fatal. If you want to help your son, do that.

I’m shocked that my poll has received more votes for YABU than YANBU.

Well if you think you’re not BU why post under AIBU and put it up for a vote??
I don’t think it’s unreasonable no, but it’s a bit of a pointless thing to demand for retail workers in particular when so many other workers need it just as much if not more and don’t have it.

There are prison staff working in close proximity to positive prisoners without PPE.

i'm in retail and we have plenty of PPE

its out there to purchase......we sell it

All in all, the government should close all supermarkets and shops immediately and just provide deliveries.

How? There obviously aren’t going to be enough drivers or vehicles to do this - just like there isn’t enough PPE to go around. You might as well say ‘the government should just provide a cure and vaccine for Covid 19 right now...’ there isn’t one of those either. Your ideas are all pointless OP when they only work in LaLa Land rather than in the real world.

A lot of stores I've been in staff were wearing disposable gloves - mostly tescos I thing.

M&S staff all had visors on at the weekend (or the weekend before maybe, I'm losing track of time!)

deliveries....with 2 people per van? so 2 people sat less than 2 metres apart?

la la land as another poster has said

where will all the required vehicles and drivers come from? why should drivers put themselves at risk visiting numerous doorsteps each day? lugging everyones shopping around for them....day in day out

Delivery drivers wouldn’t need to be in contact with the customers

We need total lockdown NOW. No more going out for exercise no nothing until this is finished

THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF PPE. How do you not get that? Yes retail staff SHOULD be provided with it. But where do you think it is going to magically appear from? The NHS are struggling to obtain it. That's why we are using crap, flimsy masks/aprons/visors. I know, I work in the nhs!

You do realise people have to be trained to drive the delivery vans don't you? They have to be tested and signed off. They have to be able to lift and carry heavy tires on and off the van. Again you can't just magic them out of thin air.

How is PPE going to protect retail staff OP?

Gloves would need to be changed after every customer

And what use is a mask. It's protecting the customer not the staff

Do you not have access to any news where you are OP?

@JoExotic I do know that

TOTAL LOCKDOWN - NOW or NEVER !!!