Posted on 05/14/2020 6:40:53 AM PDT by lightman
Shoppers at Giant no longer have to worry if they’re going the wrong way down the supermarket aisles.
The Carlisle-based Giant Company has taken down the signs and arrows that encouraged customers to adhere to one-way foot traffic in all of its stores, according to a spokesperson.
“We listen closely to our customers, and many expressed that the directional arrows, while well intended, could increase shopping time,” said Ashley Flowers, public relations manager for the chain. “As a result, we removed the directional arrows."
All other signage and social distancing measures remains in place, however, and customers will continue to be expected to wear masks in the stores.
The one-way shopping aisles were designed to ensure shoppers were spaced out within its stores during the coronavirus pandemic.
Since the pandemic began, grocery stores have enacted a variety of measures, from erecting sneeze guards at registers to dedicating shopping hours for senior citizens and those with compromised immune systems.
what arrows? never saw em.
I thought they were advertisements for products.
GOOD! for them. I IGNORE those stupid arrows. F that! I’m not going to be “micromanaged” in the freakin store!
I got in a big argument in the self checkout aisle in Walmart the other day over “social distancing”.
Much shouting pointing of fingers (yes, THAT finger) it was very close to coming to blows. Yes, the “race card” was played by them and I wasn’t playing that game. A Walmart employee was sent over to separate us and try to diffuse the situation.
I do have an explosive temper (not proud of that. It is something I have always struggled with), but I encroached on his social distancing space, while placing my items on the belt. He acted as if my purchases (I guess because I had “touched” them) had coronavirus cooties on them.
I hadn’t even realized that I had INVADED his 6 ft space, when he told (”TOLD” ME), to “respect” his social distancing. NOBODY “TELLS ME” what to do. Ask? fine TELL? not on you life.
As the argument unfolded, his wife?, baby mama, said it’s because we’re “Black”.
SAY WHAT? You accusing me of being a racist? This was starting to get ugly. Finally, we were separated by the “Black” Walmart employee who I was accused of “telling” as in “ordering my slave” (”my” words, of explanation), what to do.
Sure I “noticed” that they were “Black”. What I REALLY noticed was that they were purchasing ONE item and should be GONE momentarily. So, paying them no attention, as they would be gone before I got my cart unloaded, I continued to put my (cootie infected) groceries on the conveyor belt. Then, for some reason the belt started moving my cootie infested groceries right up to them. Close enough for a cootie to JUMP on them. At this point is when he verbally jumped all over me for violating the social distancing mandate.
Had I the chance to do it over again, I would have avoided the confrontation and allowed him to be a JERK of whatever color.
As we all know, there are no do overs. All we can do is ask for God’s forgiveness, (which I have done) and tell my story, so perhaps it will help someone else in some way.
In proof reading (PREVIEW), I had an epiphany. What if he was so upset that I and my cootie infected groceries violated his social distance space because I AM ELDERLY!
Ahah! He was AFRAID of me because I am old and we all know that COVID-19 disproportionately affects the elderly! So, I was a threat because of my age? Isn’t that like, shall we say... discrimination?
One way streets work fine. People are idiots. “Takes longer to shop” means “I want to run the wrong way halfway down this aisle, and push people out of the way to get something I forgot”.
Shopping was actually EASIER when everybody was going the same way. Except for the idiots who couldn’t follow simple directions.
If you think that walking the wrong way down the aisle is “standing up to the man”, I suggest next that you walk up the down escalator, because that would REALLY put it to those evil powers trying to force you do to things their way.
You should also make sure to push all the buttons in the elevator, because who are they to force you to push the button for the floor you want.
And definitely, if you get a roundabout, drive clockwise, because you should never put up with being told which way to go.
They put those arrows on the floor where I go. But they’re completely counter to how I shop, right from starting off on the opposite side of the store from where I start. So I’ve been ignoring them. Nobody seems to care.
It would be an interesting game to figure out how to do shopping in a minimal number of aisles, with arrows. Unless everything you want is on the aisles going the same way, you should be fine.
I didn’t particularly care one way or another, but the arrows worked really well, having everybody walking the same way meant I didn’t have to walk by anybody in the store, and I am convinced that people with the virus would go shopping to make sure they had food before they went to get tested.
If you don’t think that walking past people was a problem, then yes, the arrows didn’t help. And if didn’t help if people walked the wrong way. But they definitely allowed everybody to maintain a 6-foot distance, plus most of the time, you were never breathing TOWARD someone else’s face.
I won’t miss the arrows, but they were a simple thing, and it cracked me up how stupid people couldn’t follow simple directions.
I argue that the government needs to treat us like adults, but watching idiots who couldn’t figure out an arrow in the supermarket, I had to wonder if we were capable of being adults.
I found that people who come from crowded countries tend to be less conscious of personal space. Indian and Pakis are just awful too.
None of the employees want to confront that one customer who has ‘had it up to here’.
Those STUPID arrows have kept me from shopping at Giant for 5 weeks now.
Not going back any time soon - they seem to be a very liberal store.
The last time I was there, I was 25th in line to go to a checkout, they were monitoring and assigning checkout counters to the next in line.
Stood in line for 25 minutes to PAY for my groceries.
The one-way shopping aisles were designed to ensure shoppers were spaced out within its stores during the coronavirus pandemic.
It hasn't happened yet, but if someone in the public ever called me out, I'd swing around the cart in the proper direction and ask him how safe would he be if I passed him from behind while he was stopped, pondering a selection.
I suspect that one of the reasons for the one-ways, the six foot tape marks, the “counters” at the entrances, etc was to make shopping such an unpleasant experience that people would start to do it as little as possible and consequently reduce the number of people in the stores.
There were some industry reports that prior to March many customers would grocery shop AT LEAST once a day. Industry and government encouraged reducing trips to once a week.
Fewer people but taking longer to shop seems like a wash to me.
Was in a local grocery store this week, one with one-way arrows in the aisles. A mom and her teenage son came in from the wrong direction to grab something near the end of the aisle. The mom said “Wait - were going the wrong way”. The kid said “Who cares? Get it and let’s go”. Smart kid.
If I have to go ten feet down an isle to get my product, I’m not going all the way down another isle and turning around to come all the way back to my product.
A Costco employee yelled at me last Sunday through a megaphone. A good friend of mine and I were standing next to each other in line. She didn’t have a Costco card so I took her there so she can buy things for her family. Not kidding.
See # 52.
In addition to what I posted there, I know from store workers that during March they absolutely had had the zhits of parents taking their children to the stores as though they were some kind of playground.
For the parents, it was free (sort of) entertainment.
For the patrons and store workers it was a nightmare day after day of feral children running the aisles.
The store management took their cue from the Governors and made a draconian reaction to “restore order”. (Pun intended)
I’ve been going to the supermarket once a week for the past month. As far as I’ve seen, nobody is following those ‘arrows’.
And nobody in the stores - customers nor employees - have been concerned about it in the least. Everyone has been in good spirits.
People are dutifully wearing their masks and trying to maintain good ‘social distance’ in the checkout lines. I haven’t seen a single person upset about any of this, and no conflict/complaining, etc.
In my area, everyone seems to be taking it in stride, as Americans have always done in situations like this.
Except for dried beans and rice, and canned beans; hand sanitizer - and for a while paper products - I haven’t seen any frightening shortages of anything in the stores.
At the start of the row, you assess the row. If you don’t want to sit and wait for whoever is in the row, you move two rows down, and keep going, and come back.
Me? I just waited for people. And if I had someone behind me, I went ahead, moved back up the other aisle, and circulated back. Although frankly, I wasn’t too worried abuot anybody passing me, I just didn’t want them to feel bad about it.
It’s not that hard. But as soon as the guy with the cough and no mask came up the row the other way, I was stuck. I couldn’t easily turn around and run away. I simply turned my back until he passed.
It’s like one-way roads in the city. They do make it a little “harder” to get around, but end up working better for everybody as a whole.
I don’t think people were ready for one-way shopping, and the people stocking the shelves tended to ignore it because they were always coming from the back so they just walked down the aisle that way.
I won’t miss the arrows, but I think they could have been helpful.
I went during the 60-and-over time period, it wasn’t terribly crowded.
I wouldn’t want to shop when 29 people were lined up to check out.
I use the self-checkout anyway, but that can get crowded as well.
Walmart put their cute little stickers on the floors of the stores here in Alabama, and not a single person has paid one bit of attention to them.
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