Jax and Coronavirus

[Charles Hunter]

^ No, there are some business that will have to close - retail stores that don't sell one of the many "essential" things.  Now, could a clothing store add "cell phone chargers" or "handi-wipes" and become "essential"?  Or, scarves or bandanas as "CDC Covid Masks"?

Evidently, your sense of humor was all ready shut down.

I had hoped the last part of my comment expressed some humor. Apparently not.  Guess I am just not in your league.   

[MusicMan]

I'm pretty effing certain I can figure out on my own what businesses are "essential" and which ones are  not.

This is the scariest part of this BS.  Hope YOUR business is not on the list.....   Boy Jeff Bezos (and the NRA) gotta be loving this.

Taking a poll: a liquor store IS or IS NOT essential?

[JaxAvondale]

Essential! How else are you suppose to make your own hand sanitizer with 60 proof alcohol or higher?

[BridgeTroll]

Yes... but I stocked up a week ago 

[Charles Hunter]

Essential! How else are you suppose to make your own hand sanitizer with 60 proof alcohol or higher?

Nerd Alert - needs to be at least 120 proof, to get 60% alcohol 

[MusicMan]

Thank goodness, golf courses deemed essential.

[Adam White]

I've not seen the list, but I have a friend who works at a car dealership (selling cars) and he said they are on the list of 'essential' businesses. In what world is buying a car 'essential' right now? I can see repairs, sure. But new cars don't need to be sold.

[thelakelander]

Do they have fleet accounts?

[Steve]

I've not seen the list, but I have a friend who works at a car dealership (selling cars) and he said they are on the list of 'essential' businesses. In what world is buying a car 'essential' right now? I can see repairs, sure. But new cars don't need to be sold.

Here's the thing: I don't think you can get into the argument of telling a business what it can and can't sell. If part of the business is reasonable essential, then its essential.

Publix sells candy. Candy is not essential. But, many other items Publix sells ARE undisputedly essential. Who is going to look at the entire SKU a list of every store and say whether or not that item
is essential.

That aside, no one is buying cars right now. CNN had an article yesterday that car sales fell off a cliff around the 9th of March. So regardless of designation, it seems like people are social distancing themselves away from cars right now.

[Adam White]

I've not seen the list, but I have a friend who works at a car dealership (selling cars) and he said they are on the list of 'essential' businesses. In what world is buying a car 'essential' right now? I can see repairs, sure. But new cars don't need to be sold.

Here's the thing: I don't think you can get into the argument of telling a business what it can and can't sell. If part of the business is reasonable essential, then its essential.

Publix sells candy. Candy is not essential. But, many other items Publix sells ARE undisputedly essential. Who is going to look at the entire SKU a list of every store and say whether or not that item
is essential.

That aside, no one is buying cars right now. CNN had an article yesterday that car sales fell off a cliff around the 9th of March. So regardless of designation, it seems like people are social distancing themselves away from cars right now.

And as well all know, at dealerships, they keep the service department on same aisle as car sales and cereal.

I think you'll see more restrictive measures as the body count increases. The gov't is being naive at this point and not shutting down most businesses. It's not about whether candy is essential - it's whether the business is essential. Supermarkets are essential. Car dealerships are not. And it is possible to restrict services without closing some businesses completely - like requiring restaurants to only do takeaway food.

[Steve]

I've not seen the list, but I have a friend who works at a car dealership (selling cars) and he said they are on the list of 'essential' businesses. In what world is buying a car 'essential' right now? I can see repairs, sure. But new cars don't need to be sold.

Here's the thing: I don't think you can get into the argument of telling a business what it can and can't sell. If part of the business is reasonable essential, then its essential.

Publix sells candy. Candy is not essential. But, many other items Publix sells ARE undisputedly essential. Who is going to look at the entire SKU a list of every store and say whether or not that item
is essential.

That aside, no one is buying cars right now. CNN had an article yesterday that car sales fell off a cliff around the 9th of March. So regardless of designation, it seems like people are social distancing themselves away from cars right now.

And as well all know, at dealerships, they keep the service department on same aisle as car sales and cereal.

I think you'll see more restrictive measures as the body count increases. The gov't is being naive at this point and not shutting down most businesses. It's not about whether candy is essential - it's whether the business is essential. Supermarkets are essential. Car dealerships are not. And it is possible to restrict services without closing some businesses completely - like requiring restaurants to only do takeaway food.

I think it will depend on the region. New York may do this. I don't see Florida doing this, especially given it took this long for DeSantis to act.

[Adam White]

I've not seen the list, but I have a friend who works at a car dealership (selling cars) and he said they are on the list of 'essential' businesses. In what world is buying a car 'essential' right now? I can see repairs, sure. But new cars don't need to be sold.

Here's the thing: I don't think you can get into the argument of telling a business what it can and can't sell. If part of the business is reasonable essential, then its essential.

Publix sells candy. Candy is not essential. But, many other items Publix sells ARE undisputedly essential. Who is going to look at the entire SKU a list of every store and say whether or not that item
is essential.

That aside, no one is buying cars right now. CNN had an article yesterday that car sales fell off a cliff around the 9th of March. So regardless of designation, it seems like people are social distancing themselves away from cars right now.

And as well all know, at dealerships, they keep the service department on same aisle as car sales and cereal.

I think you'll see more restrictive measures as the body count increases. The gov't is being naive at this point and not shutting down most businesses. It's not about whether candy is essential - it's whether the business is essential. Supermarkets are essential. Car dealerships are not. And it is possible to restrict services without closing some businesses completely - like requiring restaurants to only do takeaway food.

I think it will depend on the region. New York may do this. I don't see Florida doing this, especially given it took this long for DeSantis to act.

Very possible. But they'll end up with blood on their hands if they don't do something. Or maybe it will all go away by Easter.

[Steve]

Additionally, there are oddball scenarios where someone may NEED to buy a car. Let's say they run a warehouse (or work at some other essential business) and their car breaks down/gets totaled and they need to buy a car. With some exceptions, JTA transit doesn't run to many warehouses. How is this person supposed to get to work?

I realize this isn't a common scenario, but it could happen.

Regardless, dealerships are empty so I'd chalk this up to the tree falling in the forest with nobody around. If there's nobody around who can catch COVID-19?

[Adam White]

Additionally, there are oddball scenarios where someone may NEED to buy a car. Let's say they run a warehouse (or work at some other essential business) and their car breaks down/gets totaled and they need to buy a car. With some exceptions, JTA transit doesn't run to many warehouses. How is this person supposed to get to work?

I realize this isn't a common scenario, but it could happen.

Regardless, dealerships are empty so I'd chalk this up to the tree falling in the forest with nobody around. If there's nobody around who can catch COVID-19?

If you try hard enough, you can create any sort of similar scenario with any sort of business. But the extreme outlier cases are not the criteria used to determine whether a business is essential or not. Or at least they shouldn't be.

The US gov't and the state gov'ts are going to need to start taking this seriously or it's going to get really bad, really quickly.

Edit: it sucks and it's hard. I've not left my house in about two weeks (I was self-isolating for some of that due to symptoms) - but it's what we have to do. Very few businesses near me are open and people have to get in line to enter supermarkets (they stand 6 metres apart in line and are let in on a 'one out, one in' basis).

[Charles Hunter]

Don't know if this belongs here, or in a U2C thread ...
JTA has issued a media release about the use of autonomous vehicles at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville to transport Coronovirus test samples.

On Monday, March 30, 2020, up to four autonomous vehicles began operating along an initial route, in full autonomous mode without attendants or other people onboard, to transport COVID-19 tests from a drive-thru testing site to a processing laboratory on Mayo Clinic's campus.  The COVID-19 test samples are placed in secure containers prior to Mayo Clinic healthcare professionals loading the samples onto the shuttle.

https://www.jtafla.com/media-center/press-releases/jta-beep-navya-autonomous-shuttles-help-mayo-clinic-transport-covid-19-tests/