As Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announces the reopening of various sectors of the state economy, perhaps a rather obvious point needs to be highlighted….

There are few high-traffic businesses more densely populated than grocery stores.  In fact, within the U.S. economy retail supermarkets have the highest foot traffic of any business sector in the entire economy; that’s just an empirical fact…. and the coronavirus impact increased that foot traffic by an average of 40 percent.  Now, stop and think about this logically & apply a large dose of common sense. Think about human-to-human interface.

♦First, with approximately 90 percent of the total U.S. population penetrating through grocery outlets; and with 100% of that massive number of consumers going through checkout lanes; if the COVID-19 viral strain was as significant as claimed by the worst-case data, then supermarket cashiers would have been the highest exposed profession of U.S. workers in the entire nation.  There wouldn’t even be a close second place.

Considering that metric; and considering the overall population penetration & density within the business operation; there has not been an employee-based business disruption due to the coronavirus.  Put another way: the coronavirus has not stopped the function of the highest human interface occupation in the entire U.S. economy.

♦Secondly, think about the businesses that are closed; perhaps think about your job that may have been shut down…. now frame your risk based on the supermarket example as highest human interface and highest population penetration in any business field.

If the #1 at risk industry has operated, essentially without disruption and with almost zero substantive mitigation, while carrying the largest population exposure rate, then all other less-exposed business operations would have significantly less operational risk.

Why would anyone be concerned about opening their business?

If you take the factual outcome of the retail food industry as a measure, it would follow that other than a few proximity businesses which may need prudent modifications or remain temporarily closed (ex. modified airplane seating, concerts, stadiums or capacity seating venues etc), then all other businesses should immediately resume operations.

No other business segment within the economy is as exposed to the population as the retail food business; and yet supermarkets operated without issue.

So why shouldn’t all businesses immediately get back to work?

Perhaps a few initial modifications might be needed; but not much, and not for long.

Think about it….

GEORGIA – Gov. Brian Kemp announced on Monday a series of social distancing guidelines that will allow businesses such as gyms, hair salons, tattoo parlors, and bowling alleys to reopen on Friday. By next week, movie theaters will be allowed to start showing films, and restaurants will be allowed to have limited dine-in service options in addition to the takeout orders they had been limited to before the order.

“In the same way that we carefully closed businesses and urged operations to end to mitigate the virus’s spread, today we’re announcing plans to incrementally and safely reopen sectors of our economy,” Kemp said.

State Rep. David Clark, a Republican, said he hoped other states followed Georgia’s lead, saying, “If we continue on the path we are headed down, we will totally destroy not only the U.S. economy but also the world economy.”  (read more)

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Let’s go….