The Plague - 7 Things Your Essential Business Isn't Doing

Cole’s on Polk Doing the Plague Right

7 Policies That Will Save Lives is a more politic title, but not as compelling.

Greetings from San Francisco. Hope this finds you, dear reader, safe at home, and not watching too much TV. It’s not good for you.

At this point, the main source of new infections are perhaps the places where we all must gather for essentials, food especially.


If you own or manage one of these essential businesses, the chance of you running across this blog posting are slim to none: you hardly have time to eat. But perhaps a customer or employee will share it with you, and you can do your part to help slow the spread of this virus by insisting on these life-saving policies.



The Seven Simple Practices


1. Limit capacity of store to 1/4th of what the fire marshal has posted over the door, enforced by security guard at the door, who asks customers lining up to maintain 6 feet of space around each of themselves.

2. No customer permitted entry without a mask; nobody may work without wearing one.

3. Employees wipe down the keypad after each entry (any approved substance is fine, but if alcohol-based, minimum of 70%), as well as the basket handles, before made available to next customer (make it impossible for a used basket picked up by next person).

4. Employees maintain 6 feet of distance between one another, and their customers.

5. Put red Xs on the ground showing customers where to stand both in cashier lines & specialty cues (butcher, sandwich, etc.). 

6. Get a plexiglass shield up that covers MOST of the area across the counter, and have customers hold their own items for scanning. 

7. Big signs up on doors that are now locked, otherwise hundreds of hands will touch that handle, spreading contagion.

If every essential business in my country (and worldwide) did this, you’d be eliminating the major, remaining point of transmission.

Wishing you all good health and prosperity.