When Trump was that he was pushing states to re-open their businesses, and Georgia was one of the first to announce they'd be doing so, I wrote here and on social media that as understandable outraged and concerned as most people were, I thought that one important point was being overlooked -- that just because a store opens for business doesn't mean customers will show up. And further, knowing that people weren't likely to show up in big enough numbers, many stores may not even open,
I got a bunch of responses on Twitter and Facebook that they were sure Trump loyalists would come out in droves because that's the kind of people they were. But I said that it just didn't seem likely to me. Even if all the 20% who are Trump cultists went out to stores, that's disastrous for a business. Imagine, for instance, that you owned a business and your customer base plummeted to 20% of what it was the day before. (Yes, that's more people than the zero before -- but before, the store was closed, there was no salaries to pay, no electricity costs, no security or maintenance costs. The day you open, all those costs are back.) It turns out that...well many stores didn't even open, and for those that did, customers were scare. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had a couple of articles on the subject. One of them is titled, "Shelter-in-place order ends, but most malls don't open." But the more notable article was headlined, "Large metro Atlanta malls reopen, but customers are scarce." Among the passages which stand out are -- "At Lenox [mall], just a handful of cars sat in the parking decks and lots Monday afternoon. Few customers were inside and security guards were stationed at entrances to hand out gloves and masks. Phipps [mall] felt almost like a ghost town..." The article continued, "At the Mall of Georgia, most of the shops that did choose to open were devoid of customers." You can read the whole thing here. On the one hand, I don't think this was at all unexpected, despite most of the press ignoring this reality when "re-opening business" was the topic discussed. On the other hand, even a paltry turnout is dangerous -- not just because it only takes one person infected to start spreading a deadly virus, but always because it send a terrible message to the public, that "the end is in sight," so you can be more lax in your mitigation safety efforts. Still, it's a slam in the fact to Trump and the lackey GOP governors who thought opening their states for business was a really great thing, and a cool way to suck up to Trump's favor and get on his good side. What they ignored are two things -- First, Trump doesn't have a good side. And second, most people don't want to die.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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