“It’s a slap in the face to the businesses that are following this order that a few outliers are putting the community in danger,” Jenkins said.
But locals had been patronizing those retailers for homeschool materials and crafts to keep suddenly homebound children occupied, and for supplies to make facemasks. Public outcry prompted Jenkins to call back the craft store order weeks later.
No doubt, lawmakers have faced tough challenges. Pearson noted that while we can all agree that food is a necessity, in some jurisdictions, authorities deemed truck stops nonessential, so truckloads of food couldn’t make it to their destinations.
“It's not just the first level of essential, it’s the second and third level of essential. What kinds of things do you need at the third level to support the second level to support the first level? At some point, it really is impossible to know,” he said.
For some businesses, like gyms, social distancing and adequate disinfection would be all but impossible. But what about the hard-hit restaurant industry? Julien Eelsen owns a Whisk Crepes Cafe, a French cafe in an artsy Dallas neighborhood. He’s been able to make up about 75 percent of lost dine-in revenue through the sale of “provisions boxes” containing meat, produce, even gloves, plus French wine.
Overall, he understands why shelter-at-home measures are necessary, and he’s happy to comply. But he admitted to feeling like there was a bit of a double standard when Dallas County implemented restrictions on businesses—especially early on when he saw crowded aisles at grocery stores. “I would look and think, ‘If that is happening here, why can’t I have diners in my restaurant?’” Eelsen said.
Another snag: Local governments have struggled to enforce the rules across the board. That concerns Lauren Bell, who runs residential remodeling company The Chatham Collective in North Texas with her husband, Kris. The Bells played it safe and complied with local regulations that permitted only critical infrastructure or existing or emergency projects to continue, and only then if workers exhibited good health.
That means the Bells said “no” to some opportunities and delayed others. They’re counting on Small Business Administration loans, like the Payroll Protection Program, to get their business through these leaner months.
But even on her own street, Bell is seeing new, elective remodeling projects gearing up. She understands that as people shelter at home, they want to improve the space where they’re spending so much time. But, she said responsible contractors should turn those jobs down.
“I think if the rules apply to me, they also apply to you,” Bell said.
At least one type of store has been allowed to keep its doors open: big box hardware stores, like Home Depot and Lowe’s. As Bell noted, existing construction and infrastructure projects are sanctioned, and contractors need supplies. Plus, homeowners need quick recourse if their refrigerator dies or a pipe bursts.
But one Lowe’s employee in Fort Worth told me most customers aren’t there for those kinds of essentials. In fact, appliance sales are moving slower than usual. For the first couple weeks of the economic shut down, district manager Matt Inman saw customers panic-buying things like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, gloves, even N95 facemasks the store stocks for painters.
“Then after week three, people were getting stir-crazy, and it was anything that could keep them sane at home,” he said. His biggest selling item when I spoke to him was paint.
On pretty days, he said the garden center is packed. But Inman said Lowe’s by keeping its doors open helps support people’s mental health, and for the most part, customers are picking up supplies they can use while cooped up at home.
“Whatever I can sell you to keep you home and not leave and not go stir-crazy, to me, that’s an essential,” he said.
Comments
Narissara
Posted: Thu, 04/30/2020 11:09 amWorld has reported extensively on how China uses technology to monitor its citizens' every move but very little attention has been given to efforts to implement the same kind of technology in the US. Debates about what are essential versus non-essential businesses might soon become a moot point. New York's Governor Cuomo has been calling for contact tracing through our cell phones almost from the beginning of this pandemic and seems to be partnering with governors from other states to implement it. And who can say whether Congress included funding for it in the recent relief packages?
It won't end when this pandemic does. The main talking point is that individuals only have the right to participate in certain areas of society if they are "healthy." But this kind of techonology can also be used to determine who a person associates with, what neighborhoods they frequent, whether they've attended peaceful protests against certain government actions, or even the sacred cow of the abortion industry -- all indicators of so-called social credit scores in China. It's a violation of our constitutional rights but nobody seems overly concerned about it. They'd rather be safe.
Narissara
Posted: Thu, 04/30/2020 06:47 pmThe first order of business should probably be determining jurisdiction. Should the definition of essential be determined at the local, state or federal level? Government from a Bible perspective should be from the bottom up, not top down -- family first, then community, state, and federal government last. That is presumably the purpose of the 9th and 10th Amendments.
If definitions and guidelines are to be consistent from state to state, it needs to come from the federal government and not subject to the dictates of the Governors Association, which as a body has made itself an additional, unofficial layer of government sandwiched between the federal and state levels, and completely unaccountable to the people. If it is to be determined at the state level, then let the several states govern themselves in accordance with the Constitution of the United States and their respective state constitutions. The governors seeking each others' counsel is one thing; but governors of one state pointing fingers and telling neighboring states how to govern themselves is another.
AlanE
Posted: Mon, 05/18/2020 08:41 pmMaking a decision as to what is essential and what is non-essential seems to be clearly above the government's pay grade. Which is to say it's above anyone's pay grade. Meanwhile, people have been out and about circulating all spring long. What little control the government had over the situation was lost when the goalposts were moved from flattening the curve to waiting for a cure. Most people are smart enough to realize there won't be anything left if they wait that long. Now the government is making all sorts of silly plans for reconvening the schools under strict guidelines while teenagers are out and about enjoying an extended holiday with friends.