Tuesday January 5, 2021 | LANGFORD, BC [Exterior photo added January 10, 2021]
by Mary P Brooke, editor | Island Social Trends
Most people in the mid-afternoon lineup for service at the Canada Post outlet within the Fairway Market store at Westshore Town Centre in Langford waited up to 30 minutes yesterday to reach the service counter.
While everyone was wearing masks, there were numerous crossovers of less-than-2-metres between customers leaving grocery checkout lines past people standing ‘on the spot’ for long periods. While floor markers show spacing for distancing and directional flow, many people in the store were not paying attention to that — one of the increasing signs of ‘COVID fatigue’ during the ongoing pandemic (now into a second year).
Public health orders in BC during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic include that people maintain a separated distance of two meters (wherever possible), and to wear a mask in any indoor public spaces.
Two corporate entities under one roof:
Fairway Market store management said that someone at the Canada Post outlet (which operates independently of the grocery store but within the same physical footprint) suddenly quit last week. That has left the popular Canada Post outlet understaffed.
The one person serving customers at the Canada Post outlet on Monday was calm and working hard, doing their best. But people in the long lineup — sometimes up to 15 people for long periods — were directly in the path of grocery customers coming and going.
Apparently Fairway Market has contacted the south Vancouver Island regional office of Canada Post to discuss the long lineups and is waiting to hear back.
Snail mail still in demand:
Despite that the Internet takes care of a lot of communications remotely nowadays, there are still reasons to use ‘snail mail’ (parcels, registered mail, expedited letters, or just to stock up on postage stamps for letters to mail later in community postal boxes). Yesterday that was clearly evident by the long lineups as seen by Island Social Trends during an unexpected 35-minute period in the store.
Not everyone waited in line long enough to reach the service counter.
There was no evident guidance by store management to limit the number of people standing and waiting in line; the store entrance is through a spacious mall area where people could be asked to wait in a more spacious area before joining the Canada Post lineup.
Managing boundaries during a pandemic:
There seems to be an overly strident respect for corporate boundaries between the grocery store and the postal outlet which probably worked well pre-COVID. Grocery store management said it would actually help to see a bit of public attention brought to this matter, in terms of perhaps getting a faster response from Canada Post.
It might be considered good pandemic-scenario customer service to manage or resolve the long lineups, for the sake of all customers in the space (both the grocery shoppers and postal customers). Before Christmas Canada Post asked people for patience regarding lineups.
Fairway Market at 38,015 sq ft is one of the largest stores within the Westshore Town Centre at 2945 Jacklin Road. The other large retail tenant with via-mall-entry only is Winners/HomeSense at the other end of the mall. The total mall store area is 193,000 sq ft.
Island Social Trends has reached out to Canada Post head office, Fairway Market head office, and the Island Health inspection department. Update to follow.
Current COVID pandemic conditions:
BC is still in a State of Emergency (currently to end of day January 5) as renewed every two weeks since the day after the pandemic was declared in mid-March 2020). The current public health order amendment (to midnight on January 8, 2021) is for no gatherings (household only), as well as face masks in all indoor spaces, and essential travel only.
COVID-19 vaccines are only beginning to roll out in BC, and according to Provincial Health Officer Dr Bonnie Henry (media session January 4) will in January through March 2021 be given to residents and workers in long-term care, people in rural and remote communities, and people over age 80 years.
The rest of the community is still exposed in every way as they go about their daily lives. That includes increased risk of exposure to the UK-variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus which is said to be at least 50 percent more contagious than the strain of COVID-19 seen through most of 2020.
The City of Langford has signs up around town (and some large billboard messages too), asking and reminding people to wear masks in the community.
