This might become a requirement of many of the big retailers.
“This might become a requirement of many of the big retailers.”
I think you are correct on this. I will have to do some reading/research.
I think there a legal angle here, were they could be open to law suites if they do not require this.
If you catch the virus while shopping there, could Costco be liable if they do not enforce government recommendations?
Yep - at least in the short term, and certainly, until retailers can receive some sort of indemnity or immunity from being held liable, I suspect most will err on the side of caution, or even risk losing their commercial liability coverage even if they wanted to take a less restrictive stance.
I think some bigger, national retailers actually stand to benefit from this. Where in pre-Covid times, a percentage of shoppers would go into Walmart, Costco, Target etc. for just one or two items, nobody is doing that any more. The more onerous the shopping experience (masks, lines, one-way aisles, etc.) the more likely that people are only going out when they intend to fill a shopping cart as full as possible. Consequently, whereas at one point, perhaps 20-30% of people walking into a big retailer may have been buying a shirt, a pack of batteries etc. and making purchases of say $30.00 or less, now virtually 100% of shoppers entering the store are going to spend a minimum of $150-$200 on groceries, cleaning supplies, etc.
I don't have any real data to support this, so just a personal hypotheses at this point.
In a free market, competition would allow another retailer to allow mask free, line free shopping at a perceived higher risk of Corona exposure, however, at least in the near term, I doubt most governors, departments of health and commercial insurers are going to permit any such competition to put down roots.
Great. As long as everyone will be wearing masks anyhow, how about some mass retail theft?
Oh, and did you know that the acronym COSCO also stands for CHINA Ocean Shipping Company?
Just sayin’