Column: With social distancing we need to find a new way to shop

Seven weeks into lockdown, and social distancing remains hit or miss every time you step into a shop.

Supermarkets and convenience stores which have remained open have all taken measures to limit numbers going in and out, and changed their check-outs in an attempt to enforce to the 2m rule.

But, the measures only work if people actually take notice – and far too many don’t. For some, it’s a matter of simply forgetting, but for others, it’s a combination of stupidity and arrogance; qualities which can get you far in life, it seems.

We’ve all seethed at the idiots who blithely wander around as if nothing has changed, and display the spatial awareness of a doughnut. They’re usually the ones who insist they are immune, and the pandemic is all a big hoo-ha. We can work round, or ignore them, but, long-term, retail may face even more significant changes in order to let us shop safely in numbers.

Wider, and fewer, aisles may be necessary. That would mean a complete reconfiguration of supermarkets, and a major reduction in the number of lines they all carry.

And they may need to have a one-way system in operation to keep people moving, with foodstuffs grouped together to limit the number of times they try

to double back.

Maybe those cordoned-off cafe areas can be put to new use, while staff may need to be deployed at each aisle to enforce the changes – and we too need to change how we shop.

My own experience of lockdown is that Sainsbury is by far the best organised, Morrisons is hit and miss, and Aldi and Lidl are fine if you go late evening when it’s quiet.

Our local Morrisons dedicated one aisle to create a queue to the check outs. We all stood two metres apart and waited our turn, but the same aisle was open to other folk to trundle along, brush past us and stretch across to pick stuff up off the shelves. It’s utterly pointless standing six feet apart if other people can pass so close they could pinch stuff out of your basket.

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The aisle ought to have been for queuing only, putting all its goods out of bounds, but that means taking a hit –supermarkets kinda want it both ways right now, and that cannot continue.

Our Sainsbury’s store operates an excellent check-in policy, and enforces the ‘one basket, one person’ rule which immediately eliminates the ditherers who stare at their phones, clog up aisles and get in the way.

As for smaller convenience stores, one I was in last week was just mayhem. No systems in place, folk wandering around like holidaymakers looking for cheap sunglasses, and everyone criss-crossing at the takeaway counter.

The garage forecourt had all the necessary signage but zero space to actually implement social distancing, and did nothing to re-think how people could access and exit in safety. That isn’t good enough.

Social distancing is here to stay. Seven weeks into lockdown, we now need to understand what works, and begin to implement new structures to let us all get back to normality.

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Thank you

Allan Crow, Editor, Fife Free Press