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the most over the top restrictions introduced

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plymothian

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Only allowing 1 person at a time in the 4 person toilet, making you queue next to people and relying on a manually turned engaged indicator at the top of the stairs. As the toilets are out of sight, then there is a high risk of waiting when there's no one in there just because they've not turned the sign to vacant.

Not allowed to stand up at all except when queueing to use the loo or entering/leaving the building.
 
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takno

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Not allowed to stand up at all except when queueing to use the loo or entering/leaving the building.
The health implications of that are pretty horrific on their own. I addition to the weight gain, it will lead to more eye-strain from never having the chance to look away from the monitor, and back pain from not being able to stretch out
 

corfield

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Most of this is people driven by the feeling they must “do something”, but more so, in fear of liability for criticism if they don’t.

For everyone here pointing out the absurdities of councils trying to one-way ise pavements - there will be people writing in complaining that the Council hasn’t done mich more.

Those people are the really scary ones.

And of course, every decision maker even if they had an ounce of common sense or courage to start with has legions of lawyers camping on their shoulders. Lawyers of course are those for whom being labelled risk averse is the highest form of praise whilst short term narrowly focussing on one thing that then creates 10 further issues is the sign of outstanding professional excellence in that they literally invent ever more billable opportunities...
 

Huntergreed

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I was in the lanes shopping centre in Carlisle yesterday, one way system throughout, meaning you sometimes had to walk all the way around one of the “square” sections (like a roundabout) to keep “safe”.

I am truly starting to think we’ve lost the plot as a nation.
 

Enthusiast

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Passed my local Co-Op yesterday. It's not gigantic but a reasonable size - they reduced the size of the shop floor slightly to get round the Sunday Trading laws when they were introduced so I guess it's 3,000 square feet or thereabouts. It has four aisles and you can only see the checkouts from the door. Most of the windows have posters or stacked goods preventing much of a view to the inside.

On the door is a sign "We are limiting the number of people in our store at present. Please wait here until another person leaves the shop." It got me wondering how the first customer of the day gets in! ;)
 

AdamWW

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Passed my local Co-Op yesterday. It's not gigantic but a reasonable size - they reduced the size of the shop floor slightly to get round the Sunday Trading laws when they were introduced so I guess it's 3,000 square feet or thereabouts. It has four aisles and you can only see the checkouts from the door. Most of the windows have posters or stacked goods preventing much of a view to the inside.

On the door is a sign "We are limiting the number of people in our store at present. Please wait here until another person leaves the shop." It got me wondering how the first customer of the day gets in! ;)

Good question. Presumably the idea is that staff can let people in anyway until they have the desired capacity, but then don't have to station someone on the door to enforce the one-in, one-out rule.

I'm still trying to work out how now that they have stopped restricting the number of people allowed in at once, my nearest supermarket seems a lot less busy than it was when we all had to queue to get in.
 

Domh245

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Good question. Presumably the idea is that staff can let people in anyway until they have the desired capacity, but then don't have to station someone on the door to enforce the one-in, one-out rule.

That only works when the store is at capacity constantly. As soon as someone leaves and nobody is waiting in line to replace them you loose one person from the store's 'capacity' until a member of staff begins to invite people in despite a lack of exits.
 

AdamWW

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That only works when the store is at capacity constantly. As soon as someone leaves and nobody is waiting in line to replace them you loose one person from the store's 'capacity' until a member of staff begins to invite people in despite a lack of exits.

Yes I had worked that out.

But I can't see how else it works...

I can see some sense - if you have a small store with, say, two checkouts, the second operator can stand at the door when the store isn't full, and when it is they can go and serve on the checkout at the time when they are most needed.
 

corfield

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B&Q was hilarious when it reopened. A byzantine one way system that even the staff did not follow. Indeed could not be followed.

A sign saying “queue here for tills”, yet at the end of other one way bits were “wait here for tills”, so predictably a large queue ended up being gazumped by people going to the one way bits. But whilst they waited no-one could get round the one way!

The other one way bit was through the paint section - which then was constant congestion becasue no-one could pass!

There were lots of audio messages saying “don’t browse” yet this is B&Q not a supermarket where one is familiar with what one wants/gets - you almost by definition need to read the products and compare the brands (which unless you are trade you are unfamiliar with) to work out exactly what it is you need.

All in all it was daft - but their management almost certainly knew it and like so much of what we see, it is just them trying to give the appearance of doing something - going back to that fear of what if they dont.
 

corfield

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That only works when the store is at capacity constantly. As soon as someone leaves and nobody is waiting in line to replace them you loose one person from the store's 'capacity' until a member of staff begins to invite people in despite a lack of exits.
Had that in a newsagent with a door controller telling me to wait until someone came out. I peeked round her and said I couldnt see anyone in there at all so how would this work. The controller got huffy Id looked past and rudely said “you just have to wait”. So I left and went in the next newsagent (about 30m down the road) which didnt have any of this silliness.
 

AdamWW

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B&Q was hilarious when it reopened. A byzantine one way system that even the staff did not follow. Indeed could not be followed.

A sign saying “queue here for tills”, yet at the end of other one way bits were “wait here for tills”, so predictably a large queue ended up being gazumped by people going to the one way bits. But whilst they waited no-one could get round the one way!

The other one way bit was through the paint section - which then was constant congestion becasue no-one could pass!

There were lots of audio messages saying “don’t browse” yet this is B&Q not a supermarket where one is familiar with what one wants/gets - you almost by definition need to read the products and compare the brands (which unless you are trade you are unfamiliar with) to work out exactly what it is you need.

All in all it was daft - but their management almost certainly knew it and like so much of what we see, it is just them trying to give the appearance of doing something - going back to that fear of what if they dont.

Although I suppose there's less need to check use-by-dates in B&Q than in a supermarket.

I'm afraid that if I pick up something in a supermarket and the use-by date is too close, I will put it back.
But unlike the majority of shoppers I do bother to sanitize my hands on the way in and keep them away from my face.

But if you can't actually look at things you're going to buy, that's one big advantage over on-line shopping wiped out.
 

Bletchleyite

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On the door is a sign "We are limiting the number of people in our store at present. Please wait here until another person leaves the shop." It got me wondering how the first customer of the day gets in! ;)

My local Co-op has that bizarre signage, so I looked inside, saw it was nearly empty and went in anyway.
 

Mojo

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I'm still trying to work out how now that they have stopped restricting the number of people allowed in at once, my nearest supermarket seems a lot less busy than it was when we all had to queue to get in.
I’ve noticed this as well. Had my first visit to Sainsbury’s today in a long time; they always seemed to be the most fussy out of all the supermarkets locally so I always avoided them.

Today I took advantage of the fact they offer free town centre parking and popped in for a few essentials on my way back; no queue whatsoever and the shop was almost empty, I would estimate no more than 25-30
customers in total and every aisle I was in only had one or no other customers. The semi-attended customer activated terminals only had one other customer using them and the manned checkouts (of which five were open) had one customer using and two of them had one querying.

In contrast the car park was over 50% occupied so I guess I’m not the only one taking advantage of the “free” parking ;)
 

py_megapixel

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Recently I've visited Pound World, Sainsbury's, Tesco, the Co-op, a local greengrocer's and a local bakery.

Pound World and the local places were fine, with some signs at the entrance saying "Please observe social distancing" and some protective screeens at the check-outs but no crazy restrctions.

Sainsbury's was fine. The main measures here were asking people to wipe the baskets and trolleys before/after use as well as sanitise their hands, and also social distancing markers of the floor. I did notice that they've unhelpfully placed social distancing markers in the middle of the aisles with open refrigerators rather than on each side. I don't understand the purpose of this because nobody's arms are long enough to reach from the centre of the aisle to pick up an item from the refrigerators.

Tesco was a bit over the top. Two security guards at the entrance, one handing out shopping baskets and one taking them back and sanitising them before putting them back in the pile. They've split the trolley/basket storage area at the entrance into two parts (entrance/exit) and were aggressively enforcing this, sending anyone who went into the wrong half out and in again.

Co-op had an irrating recorded message about "Please be a hero by following the one-way system in store today" except the one-way system was nonsensical. I have drawn a diagram to illustrate this, with the blue arrows indicating routes by which ones can walk. You'll notice that it isn't possible to follow the one-way system if you need items from both aisle 4 and aisle 5. Despite all of this nonsense, they don't even provide hand sanitiser at the entrance, which would be a helpful move in encouraging people to use it.
1596026428162.png
There are 5 aisles in the shop. Aisles 1 and 3 have a one-way system away from the door and aisles 2, 4 and 5 have a one-way system towards the door. The checkouts are at the opposite side of the same end of the shop as the door, and on both ends of the aisles the one way system runs away from the door and towards the checkouts. This makes it entirely impossible to double back, which in turn prevents visiting both aisle 4 and aisle 5 in the same trip.
 

AdamWW

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Recently I've visited Pound World, Sainsbury's, Tesco, the Co-op, a local greengrocer's and a local bakery.

Pound World and the local places were fine, with some signs at the entrance saying "Please observe social distancing" and some protective screeens at the check-outs but no crazy restrctions.

Sainsbury's was fine. The main measures here were asking people to wipe the baskets and trolleys before/after use as well as sanitise their hands, and also social distancing markers of the floor. I did notice that they've unhelpfully placed social distancing markers in the middle of the aisles with open refrigerators rather than on each side. I don't understand the purpose of this because nobody's arms are long enough to reach from the centre of the aisle to pick up an item from the refrigerators.

Tesco was a bit over the top. Two security guards at the entrance, one handing out shopping baskets and one taking them back and sanitising them before putting them back in the pile. They've split the trolley/basket storage area at the entrance into two parts (entrance/exit) and were aggressively enforcing this, sending anyone who went into the wrong half out and in again.

Co-op had an irrating recorded message about "Please be a hero by following the one-way system in store today" except the one-way system was nonsensical. I have drawn a diagram to illustrate this, with the blue arrows indicating routes by which ones can walk. You'll notice that it isn't possible to follow the one-way system if you need items from both aisle 4 and aisle 5. Despite all of this nonsense, they don't even provide hand sanitiser at the entrance, which would be a helpful move in encouraging people to use it.
View attachment 81459
There are 5 aisles in the shop. Aisles 1 and 3 have a one-way system away from the door and aisles 2, 4 and 5 have a one-way system towards the door. The checkouts are at the opposite side of the same end of the shop as the door, and on both ends of the aisles the one way system runs away from the door and towards the checkouts. This makes it entirely impossible to double back, which in turn prevents visiting both aisle 4 and aisle 5 in the same trip.

In my local supermarket I assume the one way markings are to some extent voluntary, as if you follow them through the shop you are finally dumped into a far corner with no way to get to the checkouts, let alone out of the buildling without using a fire exit.
 

AJW12

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That sign refers to only one person going in the room at any one time.

Ah. Didn't realise. Just seems overkill at the sheer amount of signage. If anything I think it's just resulting in everyone ignoring it because you can't walk into a shop now without going past half a dozen notices.
 

corfield

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That's the best typo I've seen for a long time...



Although going back to the discussion of why the UK wasn't using them in airports, it would be a bit of a different matter when scanning passengers who have just spent an hour or more in a nice temperature controlled airliner.
Yet I’ve never got off an aircraft and not been hot and flustered. Not least as I’ve probably walked half a mile and am carrying bags. So I guess if you can account for how that will affect each type of passenger then it’s still a totally valid test...
 

AdamWW

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Yet I’ve never got off an aircraft and not been hot and flustered. Not least as I’ve probably walked half a mile and am carrying bags. So I guess if you can account for how that will affect each type of passenger then it’s still a totally valid test...

Thanks for the sarcasm.

I think we have different experience of air travel.

You could check passengers as they stepped off the jetway, before they've carted their bags half a mile, perhaps.
 

corfield

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Thanks for the sarcasm.

I think we have different experience of air travel.

You could check passengers as they stepped off the jetway, before they've carted their bags half a mile, perhaps.
Airports and planes make rail travel look positively luxurious and pleasant.

So after they’ve spent hours cooped up and cramped in a tube with recycled air then squeezed down the aisles with hand luggage then? whilst they are wondering if their bags made it, if their onward travel is still good, as they wait for reuions with loved ones?

It’s just as stupid an idea at the airport as
everywhere else.
 

AdamWW

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Airports and planes make rail travel look positively luxurious and pleasant.

So after they’ve spent hours cooped up and cramped in a tube with recycled air then squeezed down the aisles with hand luggage then? whilst they are wondering if their bags made it, if their onward travel is still good, as they wait for reuions with loved ones?

It’s just as stupid an idea at the airport as
everywhere else.

Maybe it is stupid but you are going to struggle to convince me that having passengers walk past a thermal camera is going to make any significant difference to how long it takes to get through passport control and out of the airport.

Anecdotally, when arriving in China during SARS, going past the thermal camera caused no delay to me whatsoever. Filling in the health form and listing what symptoms I might have had (including "snivelling", which I rather liked), then handing it in at the health desk, took a bit longer.
 

corfield

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My local Co-op has that bizarre signage, so I looked inside, saw it was nearly empty and went in anyway.
My closest supermarket has two entrance/exits (car park and high street). You cant possibly see between the two and the doorpeople didnt have comms (at Tesco their people directing you to a checkout use headsets!). Cue inevitable queue at one and free at the other! Plus a nearly empty inside (a lot of people like me would use it as a through route to go to town and then pick ip shopping on way home so imbalance in usage).

They dealt with problem this by closing the high street entrance off. Except that the route around the back for wheelchairs involves a cobbled and barriered side alley which is impassable.

I saw a man in a wheelchair reduced to tears trying to talk through a crack in the door to get them to open it and explain he couldnt get to the other one. He was sent awa

I went in the back, pointed out the issue toa member of stalf and got “this is our policy to protect our staff and customers” and “you seem to have got in here fine” (the idea one might raise an issue in behalf of another seemed too complex to get through). A discussion then with the supervisor/manager seemed to see the light bulb go on and a few days later I’d passed and theyd given up entirely on the whole thing.

I just wonder how you set something like that up but dont see blatantly obvious problems or how you twist yourself until you can basically tell a wheelchair user to just “do one”.
 

AdamWW

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and “you seem to have got in here fine” (the idea one might raise an issue in behalf of another seemed too complex to get through).

Good on you for helping out.

I have come across the "You're fine so why are you bothering?" incomprehension a few times - always in London, never elsewhere in the UK.
 

corfield

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Maybe it is stupid but you are going to struggle to convince me that having passengers walk past a thermal camera is going to make any significant difference to how long it takes to get through passport control and out of the airport.

Anecdotally, when arriving in China during SARS, going past the thermal camera caused no delay to me whatsoever. Filling in the health form and listing what symptoms I might have had (including "snivelling", which I rather liked), then handing it in at the health desk, took a bit longer.
Sigh. Where did I mention time?

What I did mention was stress and flustered as a result of the entire air travel “experiencel - thus making any superficial temp measurement absolute BS.
 

stuartl

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Being stressed and flustered does not cause you to have a clinical temperature.
But would it raise the temperature of the skin on your forehead which is where the measurement is taken if you've just walked some distance in the sun ?
 

Scrotnig

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I saw a man in a wheelchair reduced to tears trying to talk through a crack in the door to get them to open it and explain he couldnt get to the other one. He was sent awa

I went in the back, pointed out the issue toa member of stalf and got “this is our policy to protect our staff and customers”
This is what happens now. Disabled people have been declared unimportant, and the emergency legislation has waived away many of the anti-discrimination rules we had previously.

As I've mentioned before, at least one heritage railway is now openly stating on their website that people in wheelchairs are not allowed to visit.

Welcome to our brave new world. If you're not 100% fit and healthy, we don't want you. At all.
 

py_megapixel

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Welcome to our brave new world. If you're not 100% fit and healthy, we don't want you. At all.
I'm inclined to agree with you that this is becoming more common.

People who take that attitude have a slight tendency to drive me insane, not only because they seemt to lack the basic quality of being a civilised human being, but because their logic is fundementally flawed. There are no (or at the very most, extremely few) people who has never needed, and will never need, special assistance because of a health condition.

As I've mentioned before, at least one heritage railway is now openly stating on their website that people in wheelchairs are not allowed to visit.
Really? I didn't think the changes in legislation stretched that far.
 

John Hunt

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Not so much an 'over the top restriction', more an observation of the way some people interpret them.
Went to the pharmacy today to pick up my prescription - five mins past two o'clock, so they had just re-opened after lunch.
One person inside the shop, one waiting outside.
I calmly said to the lady 'in you go then' and she shook her head at me, pointing at a notice which clearly said 'only 2 customers inside please'.
Hmmm.
 
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