One-way signs are needed for streets and roads to improve the flow of traffic. One-way signs are not needed in grocery stores because no one is going to follow a one-way sign in a grocery store.
You've seen them on the ground, mostly on the ground. A few smarter stores have them at eye level. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has brought about one-way signs in grocery stores.
The intention seems sincere. Getting traffic in a grocery store aisle to go in the same direction so you don't come head on with another shopper.
Grocery carts are not cars. Grocery store aisles don't have dotted white lines. One-way grocery stores are a bother because no one logically thinks about direction in a grocery store.
There was a security guard in Detroit who was killed because he required a customer to wear a mask. Tensions are frayed. Adding one-way directions to a grocery store aisle isn't actually helping.
A law or rule has to reflect norms within a society and be reasonable. The north stretch of Lake Shore Drive (U.S. 41) in Chicago used to have a speed limit of 45 mph with multiple lanes in each direction. Few people ever followed the speed limit because the road felt like a highway. Driving 45 mph wasn't reasonable.
They changed the speed limit sign … to 40 mph. Sigh.
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Intentions are nice but if they don't fit set patterns or come across as reasonable, people will ignore the rules. That is worse than not having one-way signs.
When I first heard about the one-way signs via social media, I felt bad for those shoppers. A couple of weeks later, I looked down in a grocery store to realize I was in the middle of this experiment. Most shoppers either didn't know or didn't care.
The width of a grocery store aisle is serious business in grocery stores. Maximum width allows those who prefer or need carts to compete with those carrying baskets to get around well. Older grocery stores have more narrow aisles, like some older cities such as roads in Paris and Rome.
Pre-pandemic, you had more shoppers with baskets. People with baskets are the queen pieces in chess; they can move anywhere anytime. Trader Joe's wants you to use carts instead of baskets adding to the traffic in the aisles.
Even if you want to follow the one-way signs, and good for you to try, you will get more frustrated with shoppers who don't know or care that they exist. If you are playing chess and the rest of world is playing Monopoly, no one is having fun.
Social distancing is crucial in this pandemic. Common sense helps too. Don't take too long in a spot. Be aware of other shoppers and whether they can get by with a shopping cart. Courtesy and awareness are more effective than one-way signs.
Reducing the capacity of a grocery store allows for more room for the shoppers without having to follow more signs and rules. Harder to do than putting signs on the floor but a better way to improve traffic flow in a grocery store in a pandemic.
photos credit: me
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