When the NZ government announced the lockdown, they used the term "essential services" a lot, and assumed everyone knew what they meant.
It turns out, a lot of business owners - especially those faced with the prospect of no income for a month - think they are providing essential services, and have no problem sending low-wage employees to work, undermining the whole purpose of the lockdown.
The Warehouse - New Zealand's equivalent of Kmart - announced to their stockholders they were an essential service and would stay open. The government had to announce they weren't, and they wouldn't.
Butchers across New Zealand not only assumed they were essential, but they stocked up on meat in expectation of higher demand, before the government told them they weren't essential, and that meat is now going to waste.
My favourite story is Celebration Box, a stupid company that will send an expensive box of cheap chocolate to someone. They've been in the news repeatedly over their appalling customer service, including delivering Valentine's day gifts up to a week late! It was discovered today they were still operating, albeit they'd replaced their "donut box" with a "fruit box." (It's $30 for 17 pieces of fruit.)
(You can read more about them at
Chemists (phamacies) and grocery stores are essential and we're fortunate to have both in the little mall across the street. My wife and I went in the side entrance to find both had queues, because they were only letting in a few people at a time, so she got in the queue for the chemist and I got in the queue for the grocery store. What I didn't realise until later was that the queue for the grocery store extended out the main door and around the block, but because they were trying to space everyone apart, what I thought was the end of queue was actually the middle. Oops.
What was interesting was my response to the situation. Two days ago, the risk of catching Covid-19 was about the same, but we were all packed into the grocery store and everything felt normal. Today, with only about twenty people in the entire shop, it felt very scary. I was suddenly aware when people violated the two-metre "social distancing" rule. I assumed everything was contaminated, and didn't want to touch anything. I wished I'd grabbed a face mask from the civil defense box; even though I know they're not effective, I wanted one anyway.
I was happy to get out of the shop and get home to my "bubble."
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