My workplace insists they can stay open.

[XmasIsComming]

I work somewhere that sells a lot of non essential items. We also have an area of gardening/diy within the store.

I have been informed that the whole store will remain open during lockdown.

We closed during the first lockdown.
Apparently this time our business doesn't have to close.

I think if a lot of businesses are doing this then it's not going to be a very effective lockdown.

Agree with everyone, some staff are pissy as they thought they would have a month off but far too many places are still open for it to be effective. Even non essential shops can offer click and collect so staff will still be working, people will still be traveling to collect these items, schools and unis still open, and everything that goes with that. All it's going to do if shaft the hospitality sector.

But, byvirtue "tier 1" had become totally meaningless. Areas like mine, and others, with over 350 cases per 100,000 were still in tier 1 just "because" when other areas moved into tighter restrictions anywhere from 30-100 cases. Even the lowest areas are still now worse than when most of the worst areas got higher restrictions.

I agree, as long as shops can’t operate safely than its better they remain open and stay in business than close and never re open again.

Theseedsofadream 😂

As a construction business we are hoping for the lockdown to be extended as long as possible as whilst we are locked down, furlough will remain and this is critical to us staying afloat. Therefore, if some shops opening slows the progress then it is a good thing for us. The same goes for schools being open. We really need the furlough scheme to carry on until the spring. However, it’s easy to forget they’re people’s lives that are being lost every day because currently to me they are just statistics and it’s hard to comprehend.

I think the dog groomer is essentially doing click and collect!

@honkytonkheroe

As a construction business we are hoping for the lockdown to be extended as long as possible as whilst we are locked down, furlough will remain and this is critical to us staying afloat. Therefore, if some shops opening slows the progress then it is a good thing for us. The same goes for schools being open. We really need the furlough scheme to carry on until the spring. However, it’s easy to forget they’re people’s lives that are being lost every day because currently to me they are just statistics and it’s hard to comprehend.

I though construction businesses could still open?

I thought construction could continue?

I’ve said on other threads that most non essential businesses, e.g. clothes shops, hair salons and beauty salons etc all took steps to become Covid secure, spent time and money just to be forced to close again. They should have been protected if they were meeting guidance

I agree that we need to drill down and find out where most transmission is occurring. Households? Or I thought we knew?

I don’t think a couple of minutes in a shop is the issue here.

80% to stay at home all day won't look so good if job lost in a few months time.

If shops stay open and social distance correctly etc then I imagine the chance of catching is far less than social situations where one spends more than 15 mins in close contact.

If only the supermarkets are allowed to stay open then they take all the business from other and often smaller shops.

I think what the construction worker is saying is they don’t have enough business so they are using furlough to stay open.

Most transmission is households, followed clsoely by schools and universities, then workplaces (between them, over 90+%).

Shops are something like 1% and hospitality 3% (and then public transport something like 1%?)

So, no, the lockdown isn't go to work with schools and universities still open (and kids needing to use public transport to get there), people flouting the household mixing and many, many workplaces still open.

Construction can open and this is part of the problem. We can open but the work is not there. Traditionally, we do lots of fit out jobs and largely at airports. Also with banks/building societies. Pub refits. We landed a big job fitting out a chain on cinemas just before lock down. People have largely stopped spending and prior work not started has been put on hold. We do have some work but not as much as before. We also have a very big joinery workshop that needs a lot of work just to meet its overheads. Therefore, being able to furlough the people we don’t need is essential to our survival. The new job retention scheme was just not as good for us or the employee. We’ve already made about 20 people redundant and have about 80 employees left but are trying to avoid more redundancies.

I thought shops were one of the lowest areas of transmission anyway?

I would want staff to be furloughed if the shop is not essential, because there should be clarity and a decent lockdown so it makes a real difference. A half-arsed lockdown will drag on longer, damaging businesses more, damaging Britain more.

I won't ever qualify for furlough, quite rightly, because my work generates no additional movement/mixing of people, so I can carry on. But I don't begrudge others furlough, we're either in this together or we're fucked.

I mean up until tomorrow you could book a soft play party for 15 children and 15 adults at my local soft play. Fairly sure that’s actually in breach of the rule of 6 but they don’t care. I’m amazed they are even shutting this time and haven’t plonked a load of hand sanitizers up for sale to claim ‘essential’ status.

I just hope people stick to SD. Winds me up when people get close because they have a mask on 🤦🏻‍♀️.

There's a 2nd hand / antique shop near me that also sells white goods and carpets with fitting, they are staying open and still fitting carpets (hardly essential) I think businesses are making their own rules or at least bending them to suit.

i would want staff to be furloughed if the shop is not essential

Sure, but if legally they can stay open ans can do so safely then it is better they do so.

@Bluntness100

It’s really hard to tell on these threads if this is someone genuinely worried about corona and the effect of lock down or if it’s someone who thought they were getting furloughed and paid to stay home and is pissed they need to go to work.

🤷‍♀️

I can see your trying to be clever but I'm afraid your wrong.

The role I do can be done WFH. I would have been working regardless if they closed.

The difference is that when we went into lockdown last time there wasn’t any Covid secure guidance. I think this is why the range of “essential” stores has expanded.

I just think we need to have stricter measures to make a difference.

What you need is people to follow the rules: 2 metres apart, wear a mask, not too many people in store, don't touch things, wash your hands.

The problem is that people just won't do it. It's pathetic and childish, but they just won't follow a few simple rules.

Good shops shouldn't be shutting full stop.

There's no set measure as to what a 'lockdown' is. Just because we did one sort of lockdown doesn't mean other sorts can't be successful. It's not 'a bit' of a lockdown just because your particular shop is staying open. Open your eyes. The degree of lockdown isn't set by your shop/your life.

As a matter of interest, I assume from what you've said that you'll be working from home during this lockdown? Do you think that makes you more or less likely to pick up and transmit the virus? And does the answer to that question tell you anything about the likely affect of this lockdown on transmission rates?

@Delatron

I agree that we need to drill down and find out where most transmission is occurring. Households? Or I thought we knew?

I don’t think a couple of minutes in a shop is the issue here.

Supermarkets, hospitality and schools.

The table above @Fedup21 isn't where transmission occurred though - it is merely showing the common locations that people that have covid have visited not where they contracted it. Given that most people need to shop then it's not surprising at some point a person has visited a supermarket - it does not mean they caught it there!

For the schools shut brigade there have been new studies "Reports from Germany, Norway and the WHO conclude schoolchildren are not vector of infection"