Arrows -simple or not?

[SummerDayWinterEvenings]

I would have thought they are universal in language - no? Supermarket near me has a one way system with huge arrows on the floor. Today a woman comes towards me, you are going the wrong way I pointed out as she came steaming towards me. I just need to get this -she says. I said the rules are clear -if you follow them they help everyone. She then launched into a rant about how she was a nurse and knew everything about the virus and pointing out I was spreading the virus as I was wearing gloves. She was shouting I'm a Nurse -you need to look the NHS website -and stop wearing gloves and spreading the virus. I asked her to move further away and a member of staff asked her to move on. Why is it so hard for people to follow arrow in a supermarket which are huge and clear.

[StrawberrySquash]

I am so glad my main supermarket doesn't have them. It lets me avoid people. If you all have to follow the person at the front of the arrows, all keeping 2m I don't see how you can stop to choose what you need without holding the whole line up. You need to be able to pass people. And if you can overtake, why not pass in the opposite direction? Where I need to I walk quickly past people, keeping as far away as possible. This way I'm in the shop for less time, which is important.

[DesmondTheMoonbear]

527040 I appreciate your message and I'm sorry that you too are struggling with the things that have supposedly been put in place to protect people but which actually discriminate against many of us with disabilities and make our shopping trip much harder and/or more painful than they have to be.

[DesmondTheMoonbear]

527040minutes Sorry.

[Wotsitsarecheesy]

My local coop has 3 aisles only. the right aisle has has an up arrow. The left aisle has a down arrow. The middle aisle has an up arrow at one end and a down arrow at the other end, so you can quite correctly meet people coming in the opposite direction. If you come down the second aisle, as allowed, you are supposed to go back up the first aisle again and then walk down the 3rd aisle to get to the tills which are at the bottom of the 3rd aisle. It makes no sense, so most people just ignore the arrows completely. Then again, the most I have ever seen in the shop since lockdown is about 5-6 so it isn't exactly a problem.

[ImInYourMindFuzz]

Cross contamination happens with hands and gloves.

People should be following the guidelines of the shop as that is what the shop has asked. But people are too pigheaded and think they know better, or they are above those. I don’t bother getting worked up by it now, they’re the same people that speed, park on double yellows, litter etc.

[Nicketynac]

I went into a Superdrug the other day, in a large and mainly deserted shopping centre. The arrows in the shopping centre pointing into Superdrug did not match the arrows inside the actual store which wanted me to use the other door.
And my local Asda initially had arrows which made you walk in concentric circles to complete your shop (so not up one and down the next, all aisles went from back to front except the first one which went from front to back so you were meant to go down an aisle then back to the first one EVERY time.
So arrows are not as helpful as you would think.

[rosiethehen]

I'm autistic, adhd and dyspraxic and struggle with the arrow thing. My brain just shuts down when I try to navigate round shops like this and I end up forgetting stuff and it's generally horrible. I managed fine in none arrowed Sainsburys by just avoiding being near others. I got told off in Tesco this afternoon by some officious woman for standing in the wrong place or something.

[DappledThings]

This is not a case of her not understanding the system or not being able to follow it -this was a choice

So the title and content of your rent are are odds with each other. Your title suggests that you think people are silly and incapable of following the arrows. But the quote above makes it clear ot wasnt an inability to follow the information but a choice not to.

I have met people going the wrong way against the arrows. I have accidentally gone the wrong way when not concentrating. It's really not worth getting het up about.

[FiveToFour]

Why do people think gloves would create more cross contamination than hands ?

Weird.

[PaperMonster]

I was halfway round Asda before I noticed the big arrows on the floor! I don’t go round with my head down!

[pinktaxi]

She's not right about the gloves. She sounds deranged. I've gone the wrong way before, and don't mind being told

[WanderingMilly]

Sorry, I'm another one who doesn't agree about the gloves. I put a new, clean pair of gloves on when I go into the shop so my hands (which have been all over my home and my car and the steering wheel) aren't touching anything directly.
When I have paid and loaded my shopping into the car, gloves come off, safely into a bag, and I sanitise. I put another clean pair of gloves on to take everything into my place (a flat so various doorways and entrance code to press) and dispose of those too.
If I go to more than one shop, I use clean gloves each time and do not reuse them. Far, far more sanitary than just my hands all the time and a wash when I get home....

[rosiejaune]

One-way systems are pointless, counter-productive, often confusing or badly set-up, and don't reflect how people shop in real life.

It's silly to make people go down extra aisles they don't need to browse to get to the ones they do need to. Therefore it can increase close contact, rather than decrease it.

It also doesn't allow for people forgetting things, changing their mind, choosing between two items at different locations, etc.

Humans are very good at finding alternate routes etc (though not everyone is motivated to); our brains are well-designed to do that. So it would be better just to have a general policy of asking people to keep a reasonable distance (2m is not usually possible in confined spaces).

I am also autistic, and find shopping difficult enough without these extra things to think about.

[CaptainCabinets]

So you’d be happy if I (also a nurse) wore the same pair of gloves to take your blood pressure (bearing in mind several other people have touched that machine, let’s say they’d all been wearing the same gloves too), helped you with personal hygiene and then used the very same pair of gloves to handle your medication? No?

It’s FAR more hygienic to clean your hands after you get out of your car (I carry wipes and hand gel), touch only what you need (people wearing gloves seem to have an ‘I’m alright, Jack’ mentality and then go around touching absolutely everything, but it’s alright because their OWN skin isn’t getting dirty), then you see them touching their phone and then their wallet when they go to pay, and then GETTING IN THE CAR with the same fucking gloves on.

It’s really, really simple. Buy yourself some wipes. Wipe the trolley/basket handle down without touching it. Clean your hands before you go in the shop, pick up only what you intend to purchase. Get to the pay point. Gel your hands before you touch your method of payment. Pay. Load your shopping into the car, clean your hands again and drive home. None of this filthy gloves business.

[purplelila2]

Omg you're one of those self righteous idiots.
Cant stand people like you.

ps shes right about the gloves!!!!

[ptumbi]

The store wasn't amazingly busy - so in actual fact, there was no need to have to follow the arrows at all? As the place wasn't busy? So you are just frothing up at others not following the rules?

I swear, some people absolutely LOVE getting new rules, and judging and policing people who use a bit of actual critical-thinking about it all.

You'd be great in the witch-hunts. And the SS.

[knittingaddict]

People with eyesight problems
People with learning disabilities
People with mobility issues - they may be able to walk into the shop, get the milk and walk to the checkout, but walking up one aisle and down the next doubles the distance

My parents are blind, elderly, dad is unsteady on his feet and mum has dementia. They go to the supermarket twice a week and I can only imagine the chaos that ensues and how often they annoy fellow shoppers. They refuse to stop and I can't make them. Quite frankly other people will have to cut them some slack and bite their lips. Please.

[knittingaddict]

Oh and gloves are pointless.

[Doingtheboxerbeat]

@ptumbi may have a point about being forced to use aisles you wouldn't necessarily need to go down as a stealth way of getting you to impulse buy - like IKEA .

[Singinghollybob]

The gloves thing drives me mad when people are wearing them whilst touching everything including money, their face, phone etc...

I understand that some people are saying they change them frequently, but why? What benefit does that have over just gelling hands between interactions/on leaving the shop/getting in the car etc??
I dont get it

[EnterNight]

I went to JTF last week, and getting to the end of the store came face to face with several people going the wrong way. There was a woman working in the aisle who told them off, they said nothing and went on their way.
I carried on following it round only to come to the whole bloody aisle blocked off with boxes. Their one way system led shoppers to a corner of the store with no way out unless you went against the arrows, where the employee was waiting to tell you off 😂

[Floatyboat]

Please don't tell me op is one of those utter morons that wears gloves but no mask.

Strict adherence to the one way system means shopping takes much longer, lengthening queues and increasing the time you are in the shop around other people (2m isn't some magical cut off you realise). Sounds like the women was being pragmatic and you were being a busybody.

[Floatyboat]

I understand that some people are saying they change them frequently, but why? What benefit does that have over just gelling hands between interactions/on leaving the shop/getting in the car etc??
I dont get it

That's because there is nothing to get. It is just a marker of a moron engaging in magical thinking.

[TooGood2BeTrue]

Last time I went to Tesco's I noticed the arrows on the floor when I was at the end of my grocery shop. Oops. Agree with PP's about the gloves.

[TooGood2BeTrue]

Also this is why I go to Lidl. No queuing outside and ni stupid arrows on the floor.