Oxford Street shops - crowds without distancing

[VenusOfWillendorf]

I've just been watching the BBC news over my lunch, and they were reporting on the shops reopening. The first shopping center they were at looked good - queue to get in but well distanced and marked out and everyone looking happy to be out and about again.

Then they went to NikeTown on Oxford street - it looked more like the opening of the Black Friday Sales! There looked to be no distancing at all - just a crowd literally pushing and shoving to get in the door.

I don't understand why the shop opened at all with a crowd like that - surely they should have remained closed and had their security (who looked to be overwhelmed) tell everyone to go home? Or does the fact that there seemed to be no distancing with the demonstrations at the weekend make the whole thing meaningless anyway?

Should shops that are unable to enforce social distancing either inside or outside be allowed to open?
YABU - They should be open, they all need the income now

YANBU - They should close if they can't maintain the rules.

We went out to our local shopping centre and it was very very quiet.

Only one of the multi storey car parks open and even that struggled to fill the first level

Having said that the only queue for any shop was Primark otherwise we just had a wander round like we always do.

@NowImLivinInExeter

Why is it better to be able to go into shops than buy online? It's a genuine question and I'd love somebody to give a genuine answer to this. I really don't get the appeal. I can understand it for trying clothes on, but, as I understand it, that's not even allowed at the moment. I can understand people wanting to have pubs and restaurants open because it's nice to have people bring you food and drink in a pleasant space and not have to wash up afterwards. But Primark isn't a pleasant room to be in. Horrible lighting, horrible decor which is mostly ads for themselves, air conditioning which we hate if it's in our offices and we have to spend time in it... I just don't get it.

But Primark isn't a pleasant room to be in. Horrible lighting, horrible decor which is mostly ads for themselves, air conditioning which we hate if it's in our offices and we have to spend time in it... I just don't get it

It’s cheap

Whyisit better to be able to go into shops than buy online?

You've got me, I bought all my stuff online before all this shit kicked off. But I don't have so little imagination that I can't understand why others enjoy things that I don't.

Personally, it's the restaurants I'm waiting for. I'll be first in the queue.

The BLM protest I attended was socially distanced, peaceful and very respectful. Of course that one didn’t make the news.

Why is it better to be able to go into shops than buy online?

To support the high street? If you don't shop in your local shops, they will close, even if they are part of a big chain that has a decent online presence.

If the bricks and mortar shops fail, the company will fold. I got out of retail in January but our shop was struggling massively. Low footfall was the main reason - everyone shopped online but came in store to return everything, bringing our takings down even further. If they'd come in and tried things on originally, they wouldn't have had to buy dresses in three different sizes to see which one fit the best!

You might not enjoy going shopping but going to shops in person is pretty vital if we want the high street to survive. Our local town has already lost four big chain shops since lockdown.

This is the price we pay for the uk having an economy that relies on people accumulating personal debt and using it to buy stuff.

Social distancing is never going to work long-term because humans are social animals. It's a silly construct. YABU. Don't like it, don't go.

It is absolutely gutting to see so many people in various scenarios completely ignoring the fact that we are in the midst of a pandemic by mixing in crowds where people might easily infect one another. It makes a mockery of all the sensible people who have done the right thing, making sacrifices and doing their best to stick to lock down rules and social distancing where possible in order to gain control over this virus, and it's two fingers up to the NHS. People mixing in crowds just means infections will continue and this shit situation will go on for longer than it otherwise might have done. While this situation has brought out the best in some people (NHS staff for example and people helping isolated neighbours) it really has brought out the absolute worst in others - thugs squaring up to people who are picnicking, people attacking the police or each other, crowds of people descending on durdle door (and other beaches) and leaving it covered in litter and human shit for the locals to clear up after (not to mention morons tombstoning and giving the emergency services even more work to do) - it's depressing and embarrassing. I thought we'd reached the pinnacle of making ourselves look stupid with Brexit, but apparently we've reached whole new levels this year.

Thornton’s is rubbish. It’s a wonder they’ve survived over the last few years.

i work in retail and we've been open all the way through lockdown

nobody bothers much now, the message is weak

Boris should have been clearer all the way through with daily reminders of distancing measures.....very hard for shop staff to police this now.

Agree with Vanillandhoney I'm not much of a shopper but try to shop offline as much as possible because it supports more livelihoods & keeps town / city centres alive. Our nearest big city struggles economically at the best of times too so it really needs support. Also my gut instinct is that its better for workers' rights - its harder to screw your staff over if they're in the public eye & people can maybe pick up on their mood & the workplace atmosphere.

@MarinePsychiatrist

Damn those pesky protestors fighting for equality and social progress, it's the heroes buying new sneakers we need to applaud! Our saviours, what would we do without you!

@GalesThisMorning,
"I can't imagine anything more soul crushing than shopping for sneakers and £5 tops at the moment"

Lock down happened before spring fashion came into the shops, people need clothes to fit their budget. The people who make those tops can only dream of being able to afford one. They need us to buy them, or they starve. Meanwhile in Nigeria, there's a surge in sex crimes, including the rape of babies.

When the government talks about bubbles, you don't have to permanently live in one.

Just Nike seemed to have issues, primark had orderly queues

[quote Eckhart]@NowImLivinInExeter

Why is it better to be able to go into shops than buy online? It's a genuine question and I'd love somebody to give a genuine answer to this. I really don't get the appeal. I can understand it for trying clothes on, but, as I understand it, that's not even allowed at the moment. I can understand people wanting to have pubs and restaurants open because it's nice to have people bring you food and drink in a pleasant space and not have to wash up afterwards. But Primark isn't a pleasant room to be in. Horrible lighting, horrible decor which is mostly ads for themselves, air conditioning which we hate if it's in our offices and we have to spend time in it... I just don't get it.[/quote]
Primark has no online presence so if you want to buy their products you have to go to the store.

There were large queues outside those branches of John Lewis which were open today (Oxford St not yet being one of them) but nobody seems quite so fussed about that. I cannot imagine why.

Or, more accurately, the low paid garment workers cannot afforded to feed themselves and house themselves properly because people will not pay enough for their clothes. It’s a myth that low paid garment workers are grateful for our buy cheap mass consumer culture. The jobs that they all want are in those factories with decent conditions and wages. Those factories don’t make for the high street.

@NowImLivinInExeter

You've got me, I bought all my stuff online before all this shit kicked off. But I don't have so little imagination that I can't understand why others enjoy things that I don't

Pointless little passive aggressive dig. There's nothing wrong with asking people who enjoy a thing you don't enjoy why they enjoy it. I'm curious. So, if you know why people enjoy it, why not just answer the question without being snipey?

@PuntoEBasta

There were large queues outside those branches of John Lewis which were open today (Oxford St not yet being one of them) but nobody seems quite so fussed about that. I cannot imagine why

On the contrary, I think that's even more strange, because they have a very good online service.

Good to know it didn't take long for people to bring up people demonstrating for the right not to be murdered by the police when defending hundreds of idiots pushing and shoving on the first day the shops opened.

Part of me really hoped shops would learn that we don't need 24 seasons of new lines in a year because people can manage fine without buying lots of crap. Apparently many people have a compulsive need to shop to feel normal. It's quite sad.

To support the high street? If you don't shop in your local shops, they will close, even if they are part of a big chain that has a decent online presence

So you think those queuing with little or no regard to social distancing are doing this because they're looking at the bigger picture?

"Apart from one or two on the news (wonder why those were picked) I’ve seen lots and lots on social media and in local papers online which very clearly were."

@cardibach ok. Well I've seen lots on social media and in the news that quite clearly weren't. Including Glasgow, London, Cardiff, Lancaster, Manchester, Leeds, Huddersfield, Preston, Birmingham, Newcastle, Coventry, Oxford, leicester.....I could go on.

Which news sites are you viewing? Shetland? I even saw slight breaking of social distancing on there 😂

I'm sure the government are watching with interest, and seeing this as an important exercise to test the public mood on social distancing. If there isn't the fabled "second spike" in three weeks' time, and indeed after the beaches and the protests, there's all the more reason to relax social distancing, which I really hope happens soon: it would be the answer to the schools problem (and many others).

Boris should have been clearer all the way through with daily reminders of distancing measures.....very hard for shop staff to police this now. I think it would have the opposite effect if it's parroted too often, especially from the mouth of blustering Boris, or one of the others, pontificating to us like a school prefect. If you think of announcements in shops in general, and on the underground which we hear regularly, we get bored of them, and tune them out. Whenever I hear the cheery "Welcome to Sainsbury's!", I just think "yeah, whatever"; while they rabbit on promising the moon on a stick. I wonder how many Tube commuters ever really notice the regular slogans such as "see it, say it, sorted" or "mind the gap", because they're heard so often? I'm sure regular fliers don't pay attention to the usual safety briefings, for the same reason.

[quote Eckhart]@PuntoEBasta

There were large queues outside those branches of John Lewis which were open today (Oxford St not yet being one of them) but nobody seems quite so fussed about that. I cannot imagine why

On the contrary, I think that's even more strange, because they have a very good online service.[/quote]
I wasn't commenting on the queuing, but on the media attention on a more downmarket store and its clientele.

Ponoka7

Wtf are you talking about? Buying cheap clothes helps save African babies from rape? What heroes we all are!