Subj : disability was: Posts To : Nancy Backus From : Barry Martin Date : Tue Mar 31 2020 10:29:00 Hi Nancy! BM>> Yes, probably more 'overheards' than collusion: restaurant staff BM>> overhears something at a meeting, "hey Mildred! better redeem your BM>> coupons now!" Mildred's mentions it at her sister's, brother-in-law BM>> works for competition..... (Why Mildred's sister shops at her BM>> husband's competition.... ) NB>> Might be as simple as one store announcing it as starting next NB>> week, and within 24 hours the other stores follow suit.... ;) BM> That could be. With the COVID-19 (coronavirus) events unfolding so BM> rapidly now Hy-Vee is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. BM> hours for senior citizens and others with health issues and other BM> special requirements. NB> Wegmans is 8am (maybe 6) to 10pm, and doesn't have any particular NB> senior hours.... It wouldn't do us any good, anyway, as we aren't NB> up that early anyhow if they followed the current thing of doing NB> it before regular hours.... they did cut back a bit more... I don't have any desire to get up earlier just to go shopping either. Not saying it's wrong, just not for me. If I had greater concerns I'd probably have a different opinion. And speaking on concerns, there was an segment on the local news about the walkout of some Amazon warehouse employees in New York. Most of the ones picketing outside are wearing masks (protective, not to hide face). One that ws interviewed had the nack over the mouth but just under her nose: could clearly see her nostrils! One generally breaths through their nose more than their mouth! So the mask was doing little good. BM> Was chatting and found out there was a huge line BM> and for some reason a police officer had been stationed at the entry to BM> help maintain order. I didn't ask details like if there was a problem BM> or on-duty vs. off-duty: partially because I didn't think to and mainly BM> because who I was talking to didn't get there until after the fact. NB> So it was all hearsay anyway... Our store has had a police NB> presence from before the current crisis, instead of or including NB> the normal security... I've never been there when there was a NB> problem, but it seems that there had been a troublemaker there a NB> few times... If someone was potentially going to make a sufficient problem it would be a good idea to have at least some additional protection. May cost but in the long term could save money. I think the police deal at HyVee was just to maintain order: maybe keep those not in the special categories from entering (the same who go through the ten-items-or-less lane with an overflowing cart). BM> Most of the other stores and shops locally have curtailed hours to BM> clean and restock. -- Oh yeah: Hy-Vee was out-out of toilet paper: not BM> a single roll! Most of the tissues (Kleenex) was gone too. Not sure BM> about paper towels. NB> That sounds about normal... ;0 We finally got a pile of TP back NB> in the store, some off-brand with a fancy name... fortunately we NB> aren't in any need of paper products at the moment.... ;) Anything would be better thana nothing! I might have picked up a roll/package to have as a spare: not stockpiling but 'reasonable spares', and if someone I knew was running out here's a present! NB>>> Oh, and Richard said that even though they aren't open for business, NB>>> the bulk of the stocking still gets done overnight at Wegmans.... BM>> Which makes sense as no customers to "run over"! NB>> Yup, no customers does make the possibility of efficiency more NB>> likely.. ;) BM> Just a bit! Can get sloppy while moving the old stock to put the BM> new stock behind, plus no interruptions: some of the floor personnel BM> will get paged to help ring registers or bag groceries. NB> Or be called into service by some customer looking in vain for NB> something... at Wegmans, their first priority is still to be NB> customer service.... ;) If no customers there, that distraction NB> is also removed... ;) True! And my store has the added distraction/complication of undergoing remodeling -- it's getting there! I'm sort of hoping some of the current placement is still temporary. BM>>>> I've never shopped at two in the morning but could see people working BM>>>> second shift shopping then. NB>>>> I've done it a time or two, but not a general practice to be sure.. :) NB>>>> I think it was after midnight one evening I stopped into the Wegmans NB>>>> to grab some food on my way home from the hospital when Richard was in NB>>>> there for his bypass... BM>>> There are always some reasons to be shopping late at night/early BM>>> morning even if not usually awake at that hour. NB>>> Exactly... so it's good that there are still some stores open 24 NB>>> hours... BM>> Agree. People do get sick in the middle of the night, work second and BM>> third shifts, closed the bar and need a bag of pretzels.... NB>> Lots of decent reasons.... of course, now all the stores are going NB>> on shorter hours and blaming it on the coronavirus scare.... BM> I have been wondering of some of the businesses will BM> take this issue as an opportunity to go back to more reasonable hours. NB> Guess we'll have to wait and find out.... Yup. "It will be interesting" - a lot of businesses have found their people can do some/all of their work at home and so possibly will take as an opportunity to scale back the on-site offices, which means less lighting, heating/cooling, and parking (!). Of course those cutbacks can create other issues: power company sells less commercial-priced gas and electricity, cities have less commercial land to tax. ...Might make a difference the immediate future but I'm thinking more than likely the space will not be wasted rather to be converted for a different commercial use. BM> Before I retired my store had essentially no customers after 7:30 or 8 BM> p.m. -- they did finally start shutting at 8. ...Not saying all BM> stores should shut at 8: should be up to local considerations. BM> Chicago, Atlanta, Boston probably do the 24-hour thing. ...And to me BM> the 'Mall hours' of opening at 10 didn't really make sense: opening at BM> 9 seemed more logical. Oh well, will be interesting to see how the new BM> normal turns out. NB> Lots of things probably go into that sort of decision.... Things will be interesting! BM> That was essentially my 'tutoring': started off as helping a friend. BM> All I was doing was regurgitating what was said in class a couple BM> hours earlier. Maybe the second time around, or saying it a different BM> way, or the more casual environment (outside of the classroom)... BM> Back to the actual teaching, yes, look for those glazed eyeballs which BM> either mean the material is being presented too slowly (booooored!) or BM> something isn't being understood and so need to go back. NB> Probably best to have a couple of people in the audience that are NB> good indicators of how one is doing, and just gauge their NB> response... ;) Right - "play by ear", or eyeballs, though if one hears yawns..... BM>>> Umm, light jacket that's easy to wash over the regular clothes? NB>>> Just so long as you don't need gloves that would hamper your work... BM>> For some of the sorting it's easier to pick out the parts with BM>> tweezers or needle-nosed pliers! (I'm thinking #4 nuts and bolts, BM>> which are about the diameter of the lead in a pencil.) NB>> Yup, those are tiny, all right... tools (and small ones at that) NB>> would be quite helpful in handling them.... :) BM> I remember looking at some of the mechanics tool kits being sold at BM> the store where I worked: to whole #4 bolt I was used to working with BM> would fit in the socket of the tool kit! NB> Quite the difference in scale... Just a bit! My spare nuts and bolts hardware is of the smaller scale just because of what I generally use, though it is kind of wierd when looking at a (to me) huge bolt and the parts are larger than the entire unit I'm used to. ¯ ® ¯ Barry_Martin_3@ ® ¯ @Q.COM ® ¯ ® .... You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me. --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47 þ wcECHO 4.2 ÷ ILink: The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .