When our state came up with their plan to shut things down, it was interesting to see what businesses were deemed essential, and thus allowed to remain open. Some were no-brainers (grocery stores) and others were head-scratchers (golf courses).
It was also interesting so see how these services adapted. Most of the local grocery stores in my area opened early and reserved the 6:00 – 7:30am time slot for customers who were over sixty and/or immunocompromised. Shortly thereafter they placed directional arrows on the floors and the aisles in an attempt to direct traffic a certain way. Most hospitals I know of, including ours, pretty much cancelled all elective procedures, and treated only true emergencies and COVID patients. Telemedicine ruled the day as far as seeing a doctor was concerned, and no dentist offices were opened.
As the novelty of this wore off, it became clear to me what industries and services were more essential than others. This discovery was not based on scientific analysis or anything like that, but instead was based on my observations of places I have been, and whether they were filled with or had lines of people waiting to get into the establishment.
Other than grocery stores, although the traffic in these buildings aren’t nearly what they were in the beginning due to the proliferation of business that buy and deliver your groceries, the three most essential services I’ve witnessed are gun stores, package stores and the medical marijuana dispensaries.
I don’t own a gun and have no desire to, however during my travels at the beginning of the shut down I was driving along a street in a busy commercial area and noticed a long line of people meandering from the front door into the parking lot. It was the first time I had seen anything like it, and I was naturally curious. Glancing at the name of the business I saw it was a place that sold guns and ammo, and immediately thought, “Uh oh”. I haven’t been by there or any other store of that nature since, but it made an impression.
The smaller package stores I’ve driven by always seem to have a handful of people waiting in line to get inside. The larger one I frequent doesn’t require people to wait in line, or have one person at a time enter the building, but masks are a requirement (they ask you to leave otherwise) and they have those same directional arrows on the floor that the grocers do.
The dispensary had by far the longest line of folks waiting to get in. The first time I experienced this, I figured it was the day of the week (Saturday) and the time of the day (10 in the morning). Since I’m not the most patient guy in the world, I decided the next time I went it would be early on a week day. Anyone purchasing items from the place is required to pre-order and specify a time and date of pick-up, which allows them to have everything prepared ahead of time and get folks in an out of the building ASAP. So the day I selected wound up being early on a Friday morning, about an hour after they opened, and it also happened to be a grey, dreary, drizzly day. So I naturally figured I would be in and out in a heartbeat.
Boy, was I wrong. There were fifteen people already waiting at the door when I arrived, and that line almost doubled in size shortly after I arrived. We were all standing six feet apart, on a dreary, damp and overall nasty day waiting to score our supplies. It took twenty minutes for me to actually enter the building, and five minutes to obtain and pay for the goods. There were no more than three customers in the building at any one time. I haven’t been there in six weeks but will need to make a trip soon. It will be interesting to see if the experience will be different or more of the same.
Guns, booze and weed. What a great combination! Not sure if this means anything, but I have to shake my head at the implications. If I was the cynical sort, I’d conclude that people need to self-medicate to escape reality/boredom, and they also are ready, willing and able to blow anyone away who threatens them.
It makes sense when you consider there are two distinct camps who view the pandemic in a totally different light, that the forces of hate and fear are becoming untethered, that we are more politically polarized than ever, and that stories about excessive police force with tragic consequences are sadly becoming commonplace.
Who could blame anyone who wants to get blasted to escape the madness? Hopefully these same folks have the good sense to keep the guns under lock and key and out of reach while they are escaping.
God help us if they don’t.
MSich Chronicles 
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