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.

@Marpan

I mean what’s the deal with this, don’t people just shop online.

Primary has no website fair enough but websites like boohoo are just as cheap.

True. But show me an online retailer that makes childrens clothes that are as good value as primark. My son wears the primark tshirts all the time, they're cheap, wash really well and last ages. He needs clothes but I wont be braving the stores yet but i will be. The few bits I've had from tesco in the lockdown have been no better quality wide than primark and at least twice the price.

There are some things which it is kind of ridiculous to expect people to do at a distance, including travelling on the tube at rush hour and going to a pub on a Saturday night. If you're a stickler for having a two-metre radius around you then don't do those things

I'm a bit hmm at the coverage of a melee at Nike trainer town. It feels like there is some subtle racism there.

@Marpan

I mean what’s the deal with this, don’t people just shop online.

Primary has no website fair enough but websites like boohoo are just as cheap.

Boohoo is awful quality imo.

[quote Eckhart]@MorrisZapp

Imagine a big warehouse full of the things you personally love, at brilliant prices. That's what Primark is to it's target market

There are such places. I don't like them. That's the crux of my question, really![/quote]
Then recreational shopping isn't for you. Millions share your apathy towards shopping.

But loads of us love a good rummage, the thrill of the chase, then going home with the spoils. To us, it's fun. You don't have to feel the same way.

@MorrisZapp

Why are you defensive? I'm not suggesting that we should all like the same thing or that anybody should feel the same way as me.

But there's no rummaging allowed, no 'trying things on' allowed. I can't see how shopping now is any different to shopping online, except or the queuing and the time spent getting there. Essentially you have to look from a distance, then buy, and return after trying it on at home, if it's not right. You're not even meant to be feeling to see if the fabric feels right.

You can at least see the colour and prints in the flesh - it is still hard to tell sometimes based on photos.

[quote Eckhart]@MorrisZapp

Why are you defensive? I'm not suggesting that we should all like the same thing or that anybody should feel the same way as me.

But there's no rummaging allowed, no 'trying things on' allowed. I can't see how shopping now is any different to shopping online, except or the queuing and the time spent getting there. Essentially you have to look from a distance, then buy, and return after trying it on at home, if it's not right. You're not even meant to be feeling to see if the fabric feels right.[/quote]
I've been doing all of these in Sainsbury's since the second week of lockdown.

Most of the Nike crowd were young and they have pretty much ceased to give a fuck. 6000 people raving it up in Manchester at the weekend sums it up. Lockdown is over for the young

Some p go shopping in a real shop because they want to.

Other people shop online because they want to.

It's quite straightforward.

Thanks @SoupDragon for that mind blowing thesis on the origins of human decision making.

Why is there a problem with the question 'Why d'you like shopping?'

Would you be equally as tedious if the question was 'What do people enjoy about horse riding?' There'd be lots of sensible answers like 'Oh, the fresh air!' and 'The exercise!' and 'I love bonding with my horse!', and then there'd be you: 'They do it because they want to. Some people don't do it because they don't want to. It's pretty easy to understand.'

Sounds a bit like Trigger.

Is it really that hard to puzzle out why some people like to shop as recreation? Really?

Mind. Blown.

I hate shopping too

Eckhart as pp said, it's to see and feel things asthey are, not rely on photos - even if you can't touch, you can see texture properly and in a sea of things identify what catches your eye.
Personally I find it very tiring on my eyes to scroll through hundreds of pictures - what a tedium, when shopping in shops is more instinctive and fast.
Obvoiiusly being allowed to touch fabric or at least see the length against your figure is a lot better than not being allowed to - but iut really isn't so strict in most shops, you can touch, they just ask to do it minimally.
There is also buzz (and music) in shops and people like being in a 'beehive' where they share an interest in smth.

The only thing more tedious than clothes shopping is this thread.

The only thing more tedious than clothes shopping is this thread.

(or that supercilious comment )

I don’t think many people are really following the rules, what with one thing and another people are fed up and confused. So many times I have heard recently that the young will only have a mild illness and the elderly are locked away. The government has lost control of the whole situation.

Unbelievable scenes. If we have another peak it’s down to those of little brain ruining all the efforts and hardships endured by others in the past weeks. It’s like give them an inch and they take a mile. No thought for themselves or others so long as they get something they are unlikely to really need from Primark. Madness personified.

Are you really surprised at any of this though? As soon as the shops opened it was obvious this was going to happen.

Saves Johnson the job of having to say at some point everything is back to normal, which he was never planning on doing anyway.

Of course, him or whoever he trots out to deliver the daily monologue will bang on about "social distancing", but that's it. Ultimately all the warning tape on floors will fade away from being walked over, never to be replaced.

If there is no second wave, spike or whatever people are calling it, the public will ignore it more than they are already. The most the people that don't like it or think it's madness can do, is keep away.

@PhilCornwall1 has it in one. The government are not going to tell us "social distancing is over" until the public abandon it first, so that those who don't value social distancing can use themselves as lab rats.

By the government's own admission at the very beginning, people would only follow social distancing for so long, and not mixing households. Instead, the government has concentrated on what they can enforce, such as forcibly keeping shops closed until now. By opening them up, they have knowingly thrown a huge temptation at the public.

If the fabled second spike doesn't happen in two or three weeks' time, and the dementors are disappointed, we can return to normal all the quicker. It's probably part of the strategy for "unscaring the public", having terrified many of them absolutely rigid in the first place.

The most the people that don't like it or think it's madness can do, is keep away.

Unfortunately some of the people who aren't social distancing will be carers or nurses who are now probably going to start spreading the virus again in hospitals and care homes. Don't forget the PPE they wear is to protect themselves not their patients. I think the second wave will be the same as the first, ie rampaging through hospital wards and care homes again.

Don't worry. Social distancing will be a thing of the past within 2 weeks. This government has always put economics and more than that politics before life. Hence lockdown too late and not stringent enough and easing lockdown too early and too fast. ( Haven't you noticed scientists disappeared because they disagree with Government) and lastly it went all out of the window with the Cummings fiasco. No one is listening to Boris the clown anymore!

Everyone has the right to a safe place of work, including being COVID-safe. I hope things were better inside for the staff of those stores with disorderly queues.

Everyone has the right to a safe place of work, including being COVID-safe.

Tell that to the NHS and care sector workers ( all Frontline workers I should say). No ppe did the government care?