Mark Rutte, (the prime minister that resigned some time ago, but it's still head of the Government until the elections now in March, when he supposedly will be back in function - 'cause Dutch politics), came back yesterday in another press conference, with another set of anti-Corona measures, meant to show the dear people of the Netherlands the way to a normal life (now, I didn't get who's actually defining the "normal" - us or them).
Besides keep an already declared illegal curfew in place, and allowing some relaxation for hair salons and similar, the best part is this one: the (closed) non-essentials stores will be allowed from March to reopen BUT:
Retailers will be allowed to have a maximum of two customers per floor at any given time, a maximum of six times per hour.*
Two customers per floor. Hmm... what the heck does that mean? Most stores have only one floor so basically they will be allowed with only 2 (possible) customers at one time, and no more than 12 per hour?
To notice the idiocy of this so called measure, it's worth mentioning that the supermarkets don't have this restriction in place, but more like "X persons allowed pe m2". That relates the are of the store with the actual allowed number of people. 2 per floor - with no regard to the size of the store, makes absolutely no sense.
Now the obvious question: if the "essentials" and "non-essentials" stores are following a radically different set of rules, that means that the virus is transmitting differently based on the location? Because, if the answer is "obviously not, dummy", then why the government are following a double standard on this matter? (a more rhetorical question since they mostly like have no idea what they're doing anymore).
Another really valid concern is about the type of the merchandise sold to these 2 clients: if it's shoes with the value of a couple hundreds euro, that pays for the effort to have the store open in the first place (to cover the fix costs). But if the stores sells paper and pencils, a customer spending 10 euros will not suffice. That's actually even worse than keeping the store completely closed - from the costs point of view.
So yeah, funny government, funny measures: the crowds are moved now outside the stores, and the big problem for the whole retail (and by extension the economy) is hardly now the virus, but more the (absurd) situation maintained by the elected ones.
And there is no end to this: the situation may continue like this at least until summer (as they suggested).
* based on an appointment done in advance with max 4h!
** "The visit must last at least 10 minutes" - there is no maximum time, and at least you're not forced to buy for at least X euros :)
