Relaxation of Restrictions, Part IV - **Read OP for Mod Warnings**

Ginger n Lemon wrote: »

Okay - so I've spent 3 hours in Dublin city centre today, unfortunately things arent as good as one would think (accelerated turtle plan or not)

1 - About 30% of retail shops are closed. Even those which have street entrance. Jervis, Ilac, St Green seemed like a morgue, some idiotic arrows on the floor that nobody is following (childs play?), 90% of stores closed within shopping centres, no music/no seating/ nothing basically. Jervis had JD, Tesco, PC world, Boots and Argos opened....... and M&S (all on ground floor only).

2 - About 5% of stores around Grafton street closed permanently. Stores like Aran shop, some boutiques like My Sisters Closet (on Dawson St), Oasis had their liquidating sale. All in all - very grim, every 8th shop on Grafton St was permanently closed/vacant (includes Monsoon)

3 - queues. Damn queues into EVERY shop. Some small stores had a sign "2 customers allowed into the shop at a time", those very small stores were completely empty too, welcoming.

Had a burger takeaway and unfortunately quality isnt the same, no water/no seating had to eat on a bench (took like 10 minutes to get to one too), cant wash hands. Damn seagulls staring you down. As much as Id love to support "local economy" the whole experience feels like some sort of post apocalyptic world. If it was raining at lunchtime - I think the whole Dublin city centre would seem like a ghost town.

All in all - 1-2% of masks uptake, 0 social distancing when walking, very little social distancing in the queues. Businesses are being absolutely massacred. Today is a bloody Saturday as well yet it felt like 11 AM Monday shopping. I think the budget in October will be extremely severe, there are just way too many jobs lost, businesses shut down and trading activity seems like 10-15% of pre covid, unfortunately.

Yes it’s killing demand. Few times I’ve been out since easing I’ve walked by any shop with queues. Just could not be arsed with that, my money has stayed in my pocket as a result.
I’m dreading the budget, majority of the public are in la la land still re the whole thing. We are still in the latent period where all the bad stuff has been delayed. Severe job losses coming in retail and leisure.

Was talking to one of the staff in the top menswear store in Kilkenny and her face said it all- a little busy the first two days but had been very quiet late week. Rather than Penney’s I think places like that are a good barometer of where the economy and spending are really at. Place like Kilkenny is really badly hit as there’s no tourists about to subvent local spending.

Drumpot wrote: »

If we go down McWilliams route we will be looking to get cheap loans and to spend our way out of this... unless something drastic changes in Europe between now and then I’d say there’s a decent chance there might be a positive surprise in the budget. This wasn’t like our banks going under or being bailed out and everybody around the world is in the same boat.

I’m not sure we will be seeing the kind of budgets we saw in 08/09 as i believe it will be the end of the EU if austerity is the chosen approach again and I don’t think even the frugal Europeans want that so somethings gotta give.

I hope I’m wrong and you’re right!

There is actually a high amount of savings in the economy so people do have money to spend in general. The problem is them having the confidence to actually spend it with what they have gone through the past 3 months and also being frightened daily about potential 2nd, 3rd and 4th waves, etc.

DubInMeath wrote: »

Normally do a two week shop, apart from bread and milk.
Got stopped about five times in the last two months, once on the way to the vet, same experience as yourself.
Missus has been working throughout and had to drive to work every day. Stopped a few times by the same garda and as soon as they seen that it was her waived her through.

Have to agree. Stopped 5 times and Guards were great. One lad recognised me from the morning and all he said was 'day done' and nodded me on.

PCeeeee wrote: »

Have to agree. Stopped 5 times and Guards were great. One lad recognised me from the morning and all he said was 'day done' and nodded me on.

That’s wonderful. I had a colleague stopped several times at the same spot. Very quiet mannerly chap. Had his work letter but was told he must have his name on the work letter or next time they’ll turn him a round. After several times being stopped there.
It’s great that some people thought this was great and indeed “lifesaving”. I’m strongly against these kind of measures and never want to see them again. Ever

stephenjmcd wrote: »

Having been in town only an hour or two ago, Grafton Street and Henry Street are quite busy today to be fair, lots of pictures on social media, seems to have picked up as the weather got a little better.

In terms of shops opening, they weren't all prepared to be allowed to open yet so some wont be open until next week as they hadn't got everything in place.

But yes anywhere I've been once your in the shop out of the queue theres no social distancing and people ignoring the one way systems etc.

Footfall in the city yesterday was about half of a normal day and well up on the previous week so its getting there, it'll just take time.

Hope you are right. Grafton St and Henry St are busy with tons of people walking etc. but shops themselves had queues and I suppose most people (incl myself) walk past all of that. Looking into shops (like Zara/H&M) they are mostly empty and you genuinely feel you could put 50 more people into them and they would still be 2 metres apart.

Another thing that's really strange is that some shop assistants/people who organise the queue wear this plastic barrier in front of their face - where as others dont even wear gloves/mask (Penneys store had 1 person out of 8 who organised the queue wear mask)

Hopefully it all does pick up over the coming weeks but as is the picture was a bit grim and 2 more weeks of no restaurants/pubs/barbers really does seem to be so excruciating.

I am gonna go out on a limb here and predict less than 25 new cases today. And tomorrow. ...

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

There is actually a high amount of savings in the economy so people do have money to spend in general. The problem is them having the confidence to actually spend it with what they have gone through the past 3 months and also being frightened daily about potential 2nd, 3rd and 4th waves, etc.

Yes consumer confidence is a huge issue (feel it myself if honest). After the past 4 months of rollercoaster you just don’t know what whims the government will act on next. And there’s more than plenty that would cheer a return to full lockdown mode given half the chance. That’s massively damaging to business confidence in particular. Who in the right minds will be fitting out new shops, taking out new leases, investing in new premises...these are all things that keep the economy going. I think we are in a bit of a fool’s paradise still

opinionated3 wrote: »

This sums me up perfectly. Was looking forward to changing my car at some stage this year but I've given up on that idea (and of course the car I've being searching for has come up for sale at the dealers I bought my current car from!). Haven't a clue what the future holds regarding my own employment and that of my wife. As a result we are watching everything we spend. We might treat ourselves to a takeaway at the weekend but apart from that it's just the essentials at the moment. On a positive note, our savings are building slowly but surely so if things actually turned out not-so-bad we might be able to spend towards the end of the year/into 2021. I'm assuming we're not the only ones behaving like this so the potential for a bounce back for the economy could be huge. But as things stand I think the uncertainty is a killer right now.

With regards to car sales there is a lot of “ah sure the one I have is going grand I’ll hold on to it” (My own mother included) and people not changing. Not a happy time to be selling cars especially more expensive ones. Cheaper ones may see a boon as people desert public transport. But very little in them for dealers

leahyl wrote: »

I had benn thinking of changing my car around August this year (had been saving too) but definitely not gonna do it now - the car will do me for another year.

Changed mine this week, had no choice really as it was on its last legs but got a good deal on the new one, some savings to be made as dealers want to get stock moving again.

Just wanted to chime in re changing cars, changed our car this week. Hadn't intended on moving so quickly, but everything just fell into place. Very good deals on trade ins available, my advice would be to ring garage as they're definitely moving on their offers. Garage had sold two of the same car we bought that morning, so certainly there is a market in used cars at the moment.

RTE keep showing same Brazil graves everyday and report Chinese man eating at some market and getting covid with 11 surrounding areas where he lives shutting down.

What a waste of taxpayers money.

0 insight. 0 reporting on EU countries no spikes
from lifting ALL of bloody restrictions. France announced today reopening borders for 15 June this Monday coming. Not reported. Wrapping it up with thank you healthcare workers...

road_high wrote: »

Yes it was mania, mania on a national scale. It’s too early for the masses to admit that as many need to believe they were buying into a collective “all in it together” sham.
I never agreed with this approach and remain unconvinced any of it led to any reduction in Covid 19 cases anywhere.
In the main it was simply Non sensical hysterical rubbish while it (C-19) was allowed run rampant in care homes and some hospitals- this is where the resourcing needed to be focused but wasn’t hence our less than flattering figures.

Yes, this is what was wrong here from the day one. Instead of protecting vulnerable we tried to protect everyone and we failed. This was not being done before on such scale and lets hope we can learn from this so we will not repeat this costly mistake again. Problem is that instead of accepting that we failed we keep on going like we used to do - lie upon a lie just to save face. We are being "programmed" to accept this as new reality in the most ridiculous way. Printed media are on a mission to force this new way on people and do so day in day out. Like this article in examiner about accident on LeMans race - this sentence make your head spin:

"In the current world of social distancing, it is hard to imagine the crowd of spectators who had squeezed into Le Mans on the afternoon of June 11, 1955. "

Like seriously? Hard to imagine? This "current world of social distancing" is being forced on us only about 3 months yet journalists have hard time to imagine what was happening 3-4 months ago? This subtle yet persistent push to accept we cant be closer than 2 meter to another human being is absolutely crazy. I just hope that sanity prevails and we return to living our life fully while accepting that life is dangerous and everyone cant be protected from everything at all times.

Even our ancestors knew that social distancing do not work when they huddled together in a cave around fire at night. Put them 2 meters apart and most of them will freeze to death. People need to be together and need to touch, hug, slap or kiss one another. That is how our bodies and mind work and help us survive. That is how our immunity develop in a first way.

Many people who do not like their jobs were told to go retrain and get another which will suit your needs. The same can be told to anyone who for any reason do not want to go back to work. Teachers for example are not some divine class of people so if they do not want to go back to work in september who really cares? They are free to choose another path or career which may suit their personal needs. We train quite a lot of them every year anyway.

https://112.international/politics/strict-lockdown-not-to-be-introduced-in-ukraine-despite-increase-in-coronavirus-infection-52169.html

Ukraine announces that despite recent increase in number of outbreaks there will be no lockdown like the rest of Europe had

bb1234567 wrote: »

https://112.international/politics/strict-lockdown-not-to-be-introduced-in-ukraine-despite-increase-in-coronavirus-infection-52169.html

Ukraine announces that despite recent increase in number of outbreaks there will be no lockdown like the rest of Europe had

It has been proved in Ireland that lockdown does not protect most vulnerable in nursing homes anyway. It does destroy economy and people's lives and future.

gral6 wrote: »

It has been proved in Ireland that lockdown does not protect most vulnerable in nursing homes anyway. It does destroy economy and people's lives and future.

The nursing homes were a perfect illustration of how uncontrolled community spread means it will get into vulnerable areas. Nursing home staff live in the community, and any visitors also live in the community.