2021-01-28 (Day 028) Traffic Light Entry Control

My year of "not doing a Project 365" was 2020, the year that was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Or at least, it was the first year that was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.  I regret that I didn't document the year well enough, so I'll start now.

So, this is the entrance to my local food store, Aldi.  It has a traffic light control system which we are told is wired up to a counter that tracks how many people are in the shop.  If the light goes red, you're meant to wait outside until it turns green - then you can go in.  Other shops have people at the door telling folk when they can go in, and of course right now only shops deemed "essential" (food shops, etc) are allowed to open.

Inside Aldi, there is a Cleaning Station where you have alcohol-basde sanitising sprays you can put onto your hands and onot the shopping basket or trolley you use on your journey round the store.  The law requires you to wear a mask in the shop, unless you are medically exempt, and the vast majority of people comply.

Once, there were one-eay systems inside food shops, but they didn't really work very well.  Even conscientious shoppers easily made mistakes, and the one-way system idea has been abandoned.  But the checkouts have changed - where once they were very open, they are now enclosed in perspex sheeting to protect the staff working at the tills.

Who knows whether there will be retail stores like this in twenty or thirty years.  Maybe anyone who finds this picture will think it quaint that people went to a building to buy food, rather than having Amazon deliver it to you.  But if there are any real shops left, I wonder whether any of the COVID operational changes will still be in existence by that time?