My thoughts on today's first phase of the Market Restart

Today was the day of the gradual market opening after a heavily strict shut down of almost three months. Since November all stores were forced to close due to restrictions meant to restrain the coronavirus spreading. The only ones left open were supermarkets, bakeries and food stores, drugstores, optic stores and locksmiths. Items like clothes, shoes and toys were strictly banned, no store was allowed to sell them (that would serve as a protective measure against competition between big chain supermarkets and local stores that had to close their doors to customers). Coffee stores and restaurants were only allowed to sell take away or make house deliveries and everything else was supposed to be ordered online.

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The result?

A mess.

Heavy delays in product deliveries, as the delivery services were to deal with an extremely big workload. Mind you that the big shut down came a month before Christmas holidays and all presents should be ordered online. Those prudent enough managed to foresee the "disaster" coming and had placed their orders early enough (sometimes even a month in advance), others were disappointed to wait and wait and wait or simply cancel their orders.

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Seeing the economy fail, the government allowed for clothes, shoes, toys and some other goods to be sold through the "click away" method a couple of weeks before Christmas. You could order online through the store's e-shop or simply call them and tell them what you needed and then you'd visit the store at the time and day they'd tell you to collect your shopping, you were not allowed to go in, everything would happen at the entrance. That gave a sigh of relief to some merchants, but unfortunately the government took it back soon after New Year's had passed. They wanted to "shield" us again, keep the number of new coronavirus cases low, in order to prepare for the big primary schools opening on January 11th.

Merchants felt frustrated again!

And here we are now, January 18th, when the market is freely open. I must say I hit the shops today as I desperately needed some new underwear and other household stuff I couldn't get from the supermarket. What I saw was lines of people waiting outside stores, assistants trying to keep them in place and remind them to keep a distance from other customers, wear their masks properly and wait for other customers to leave the shop before entering (as specific number of customers is allowed in every store depending on its square meters). I also happened to see lines of people outside some big supermarkets that brought more products back on their shelves and of course, I happened to see some big stores not paying attention to the rules, allowing too many customers get in at the same time and people one right next to the other in the line for the check out counter.

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The bright side: Most people were conscious about the preventive measures against coronavirus. They either started to value their health or understood that unless we are cautious, the market will soon close again with disastrous results for merchants and employees. The market is beginning to look more lively and hopefully business will manage to survive this crisis.

The dark side: A lot more businesses, cafés and restaurants that don't serve take away remain closed, along with hotels that seem to struggle (as holiday trips have been forbidden) with very few guests. I wonder what will happen of them, both owners and employees, we can't afford another tourist season lost like we lost last summer.

The wishful thinking: Today's opening will let some businesses take a breath, it won't bring another increase on new coronavirus cases, which will unfortunately lead us to further restrictions, and gradually the market and our economy will be fully functional in the following months (hopefully by April-May). Jobs will be lost as some businesses will inevitably shut down for good, the damage the coronavirus has done is huge, but we all wish to see most of them still standing after this long fight. We all want our lives go back to normal. Fingers crossed that happens soon!

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