#covid-19 and retail

[alwaysbewoke]

[howlingwolf23]

So there's this post about how customer\employee relationship has gotten worse since Covid. And I do believe that but it's also like that but in other areas, it has also become more of this "me vs everyone" in areas we might not have noticed yet.

A big one for my city is driving.

I live in a small college town so the occasional bad drivers from out of town was no surprise but that was usually the number one complaint of "stupid out of towners" or "damn college kids" don't know how to drive around here.

But post Covid? Holy shit! It seems like it has gone mad!

Nobody goes when the light goes green because so many red light runners. And i don't mean that usual prick, last second, squeezing in.

No.

I mean the light has been red for several beats, it has been green the other way for a beat and half where even the slow trucks\sunday drivers\slow reaction people can be half way into the intersection and there is still a red light runners coming through.

So now everyone waits like 2 or 3 solid seconds before moving just in case that asshole is around and guess what? there usually is.

On top of that, I have seen someone do this, in front of a cop. Fucker did nothing. Not even a flash of the lights warning.

Or people in the wrong lane but they need to turn, they are one just lane over, so they will just turn anyways even if there is already cars in the turning lane, even if their is 1 line to turn on to.

Or the road merges, everyone knows this road goes from 2 to 1 lane so zipper merge but not this asshole, they have to gun it to get 1 more car length ahead in bumper to bumper traffic just to slam on their brakes and turn at the first street.

People flying through school zones, not even slowing down, just keep doing the regular speed limit.

Pedestrians too, just walking anywhere they like, crossing the road like there's no cars on 3 lane wide roads, just walking, taking their time as cars have to slow down, sometimes stop or on smaller, residential streets, just walking in the middle of the road and refusing to move left or right for traffic.

It's just madness sometimes driving through town, and that's ignoring the other major issues you'll see when driving through the town.

I think it's 2 parts, 1) people got used to the more empty streets and now feel like they, personally, own the streets, and others are now invading their space 2) something about Covid just really did a number on everyone, not sure if it was the isolation that made people forget to be kind\general rules of society or if it the Mask Wars that started the "us vs them" mentally people seem to have post-covid.

[mischief-night-ghost]

Customer at work, saying mental health issues got worse after Covid.

Me: well, on top of social isolation, it's been found that repetitive contractions that it does damage and alter brain chemistry.

Customer: *does the conspiracy theorist eye flash* wonder how they actually got covid

Me: they were exposed and contracted it??

Customer; yeah sure that's exactly how *conspiracy theorist eyebrows*

[jennyviviandee]

Panel from manga-ka Kiyohiko Azuma's Azumanga Daioh (1999-2002).

Miss Yukari Tanizaki on the right represents how mentally I should view resting. Such as today. On a day off from work which became quite a pattern of energy-sapping awfulnesss during the holidays persisting on being so.

Because work has insufficient associates for grocery, no assistant manager in said department, and a new store manager that just arrived. Jinkies, that's a ton of transitions at once! Also, on top of everything else, I'm the only pure grocery stocker due to the other two playing dual roles (cashier, working in Vitamins). In short, work, at the moment, completely bites and destroys me: mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially.

However, my roommates have pointed out the store isn't hiring. If one checks. Perhaps it is hasn't updated yet though...?

*Fearfully, memories of seven months of unemployment come flooding back. That's what happened after my last job. ...That long of a drought was endured. I had to constantly fight for my unemployment money whilst I filled out so many applications (hundreds) resulting in few interviews until, finally, this specific interview for my current job I've obtained*

Conversely, Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa is accurately indicative of how my brain treats me concerning resting.

As in, I don't deserve it. In the slightest. Contribute to society daily, don't be home. Your lone value is your job: otherwise you are worthless garbage.

Don't get ill, we need you! You're part of this family! Wipe that visible tired drool from under your mask during a killer pandemic and keep on working!

I mean if I do legitimately become sick with something significant, we'd be severely financially crippled.

How many of us are one lost paycheck from such catastrophic ruin I wonder? Thanks to rent costs? Health or vehicle stuff? Too many I'd guess sadly.

Yes, I must get the forced capitalist system lobotomy, catch virtually no Z's, work until I'm sleep-standing or have an utter tear-inducing mental breakdown from too much stress versus genuinely resting.

...Even bloody now, all I can think about is how tomorrow is gonna completely suck. When I should be, without a doubt, slumbering by now (I'm so drained). Thanks to my scheduled commencement being later. When 8 hours was already killing us for truck days.

Still, remember, we all deserve rest. I deserve rest. Y'all deserve rest.

[iteamanz]

Medical care demands a safe, clean environment. With the rise of COVID-19 and antibiotic-resistant diseases, now more than ever, cleaning must go beyond appearances as a matter of community health.

So, how can you ensure that your ER, recovery rooms, hallways, kitchen, washroom areas, elevators—every floor in the hospital—are clean enough to conform to the standards of high-quality healthcare? With our commecial healthcare cleaning tools combined with the i-know kit, you can monitor the cleanliness of all touchpoint areas. See the best cleaning tools for hospitals, including our i-know test kit to determine if surfaces have been adequately cleaned.

With i-know, it only takes around 60 seconds to measure dirt levels on a surface. That speed and accuracy empowers cleaning teams with useful data to get objective feedback on the quality of their commercial cleaning practises.

[quick-release-velozine]

Bike Shop Life. March, 2020.

[thoughtportal]

Opinion Here’s how to get free Paxlovid as many times as you need it

When the public health emergency around covid-19 ended, vaccines and treatments became commercial products, meaning companies could charge for them as they do other pharmaceuticals. Paxlovid, the highly effective antiviral pill that can prevent covid from becoming severe, now has a list price of nearly $1,400 for a five-day treatment course.

Thanks to an innovative agreement between the Biden administration and the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer, Americans can still access the medication free or at very low cost through a program called Paxcess. The problem is that too few people — including pharmacists — are aware of it.

I learned of Paxcess only after readers wrote that pharmacies were charging them hundreds of dollars — or even the full list price — to fill their Paxlovid prescription. This shouldn’t be happening. A representative from Pfizer, which runs the program, explained to me that patients on Medicare and Medicaid or who are uninsured should get free Paxlovid. They need to sign up by going to paxlovid.iassist.com or by calling 877-219-7225. “We wanted to make enrollment as easy and as quick as possible,” the representative said.

Indeed, the process is straightforward. I clicked through the web form myself, and there are only three sets of information required. Patients first enter their name, date of birth and address. They then input their prescriber’s name and address and select their insurance type.

All this should take less than five minutes and can be done at home or at the pharmacy. A physician or pharmacist can fill it out on behalf of the patient, too. Importantly, this form does not ask for medical history, proof of a positive coronavirus test, income verification, citizenship status or other potentially sensitive and time-consuming information.

But there is one key requirement people need to be aware of: Patients must have a prescription for Paxlovid to start the enrollment process. It is not possible to pre-enroll. (Though, in a sense, people on Medicare or Medicaid are already pre-enrolled.)

Once the questionnaire is complete, the website generates a voucher within seconds. People can print it or email it themselves, and then they can exchange it for a free course of Paxlovid at most pharmacies.

Pfizer’s representative tells me that more than 57,000 pharmacies are contracted to participate in this program, including major chain drugstores such as CVS and Walgreens and large retail chains such as Walmart, Kroger and Costco. For those unable to go in person, a mail-order option is available, too.

The program works a little differently for patients with commercial insurance. Some insurance plans already cover Paxlovid without a co-pay. Anyone who is told there will be a charge should sign up for Paxcess, which would further bring down their co-pay and might even cover the entire cost.

Several readers have attested that Paxcess’s process was fast and seamless. I was also glad to learn that there is basically no limit to the number of times someone could use it. A person who contracts the coronavirus three times in a year could access Paxlovid free or at low cost each time.

Unfortunately, readers informed me of one major glitch: Though the Paxcess voucher is honored when presented, some pharmacies are not offering the program proactively. As a result, many patients are still being charged high co-pays even if they could have gotten the medication at no cost.

This is incredibly frustrating. However, after interviewing multiple people involved in the process, including representatives of major pharmacy chains and Biden administration officials, I believe everyone is sincere in trying to make things right. As we saw in the early days of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, it’s hard to get a new program off the ground. Policies that look good on paper run into multiple barriers during implementation.

Those involved are actively identifying and addressing these problems. For instance, a Walgreens representative explained to me that in addition to educating pharmacists and pharmacy techs about the program, the company learned it also had to make system changes to account for a different workflow. Normally, when pharmacists process a prescription, they inform patients of the co-pay and dispense the medication. But with Paxlovid, the system needs to stop them if there is a co-pay, so they can prompt patients to sign up for Paxcess.

Here is where patients and consumers must take a proactive role. That might not feel fair; after all, if someone is ill, people expect that the system will work to help them. But that’s not our reality. While pharmacies work to fix their system glitches, patients need to be their own best advocates. That means signing up for Paxcess as soon as they receive a Paxlovid prescription and helping spread the word so that others can get the antiviral at little or no cost, too.

{source}

[willinglyghoulified]

I worked at Walmart during the "lockdown." I watched as people spent their COVID relief money on flat screen TVs and new phones. I watched people get so unnecessarily angry because we shut down our fitting rooms, so they took the merchandise to the restrooms, which they wound up stealing instead of just trying on. People panicked when our shelves weren't restocked fast enough. I'd never seen a shortage on toilet paper like this but it was so bad, we had to limit how much each customer bought. Our workers were quitting or taking paid quarantine while the rest of us who kept our heads stayed at work and dealt with the bullshit for a paycheck. Watching society collapse on itself was both fascinating and nerve-wracking. Because I was an "essential worker," most of the customers took out their frustrations on us, not knowing or even caring that we were working whole departments by ourselves because we were grossly understaffed and underpaid.

Here's the shitty thing: my husband and I finally caught COVID after 3 years of working through the pandemic. When we told our bosses at work, we weren't given a paid quarantine. In fact, we weren't given an unpaid quarantine. IN FACT, they said that taking a home test wasn't good enough proof, that it could have been a false positive. So we went to Walgreens and had a test done for free, and it was positive. I sent a screenshot of the emails we received to our bosses. THEN, when we had to get in touch with Sedgwick for LOA, THEY gave us a hard time too, stating that we needed to give them a doctor's name and the health facility where we got our tests taken. I explained we had it done at a Walgreen's and not s clinic, and the lady said it was invalid, that we had to go somewhere else to get a test taken. Keep in mind, I HAVE NEVER FELT SICKER, and we had already dealt with enough bullshit and been sick for 3 whole days at this point. Management told us they expected us to be back to work 5 days after we showed our first symptoms, that should have been enough quarantine time. So I went back to work, still sick with COVID, and the whole time, I felt on the verge of collapse. They finally sent me home and I explained I wouldn't be coming back until we were better. (My husband ran a fever of 106!) To which management replied that our days would be unexcused if we didn't finish our Sedgwick paperwork and would be pointed for all of the days we missed.

Needless to say, we quit. He worked there for 8 years and I worked there for 4, and we quit just like that. We worked our asses off during the pandemic while so many of our coworkers took a paid optional quarantine which we opted out of, and once WE got sick, we were treated like we were liars or like we just didn't want to be at work. The pandemic did more than the above stated meme, it also showed you who was worth working for and who wasn't. Which employers would actually take care of their employees, and who didn't give a shit.

[writing-write-now]

thinking about when I was an essential worker during COVID at CVS. I was like 18, and maybe a couple months into working there.

This old guy would come in like once a week to buy our big thing of cheap Italian table wine; he always wore a Veteran hat and came in the afternoon around the same time. I worked closing shifts so i rung him out like five subsequent times before this interaction.

One night he just seemed more comfortable with me, i don’t know. But I remember we had just put the plastic dividers up for COVID and his wine was too big to fit through the hole at the bottom— but this time we were laughing about it and passing the thing around where my scanner could reach. And laughing he says something like or to the effect of, “Yeah COVID’s fucked everything up. I guess i’m still here, but that wasn’t the plan.” I just laugh and vaguely agree how COVID has been fucking with school. And then he says, “Yeeup I was trying to go skydiving but we got grounded.” I ask if he’d ever done it before. He said something about the air force and piloting, I thanked him for his service and handed over his long ass receipt.

This is the thing I always think about, in the strangest calmest way he told me, “This time I was flying without a backpack though— one final ride. ” Then grabbed his wine off the counter and left.

I saw him many, many shifts after that, and he never mentioned anything vaguely suicidal or coded like that again. The entirety of COVID happened, I became a shift manager and moved to be more regularly stocking shelves than helping at the register. But I still saw the guy, I swear I would see him come in— literally until he didn’t. My mind blanked when i realized i hadn’t seen him in two weeks or so.

I asked my pharmacy tech work buds if they recognized the customer and if he ever picked up medication here. They didn’t know him, so I never found out what happened.

Believe this story or not, he’s one of the few customers I actually still think about all the time. I don’t really even remember his face, I can picture the veteran’s hat more clearly. I always wanted to know what happened, i tried remembering his phone number to look up his rewards account but that never turned anything up.

Where ever you are dude, hope you’re healthy or flying high man.

[xtruss]

A police officer and a security guard stand outside of a boutique in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, on April 11, 2022. Along with other parts of the city, SoHo witnessed a surge of shoplifting incidents compared to the prior year. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

United States 🇺🇸: How Organized Shoplifting Became a Billion-Dollar Industry

— By Aleks Phillips | Newsweek | Sunday August 20, 2023

Organized retail crime is on the rise, turbocharged by the pandemic and now costing the retail industry billions of dollars a year.

"Professional" gangs that are able to take large quantities of items are responsible for the biggest losses, experts say.

Consumers not only face higher prices but also localized shortages of certain products and potential store closures.

One industry insider explained the increased volume of theft as driven by higher margins available for stolen goods online.

In a May earnings report, Brian Cornell, CEO of Target, said that a loss of inventory is expected to reduce the company's profits by more than $500 million compared to the previous year. While he said there were "many potential sources," theft and organized retail crime were becoming "increasingly important drivers."

The corporate disclosure was a rare public recognition of the already large and increasing issue that theft is posing for retailers since the coronavirus pandemic. Industry insiders say that Target's figure is just the tip of the iceberg, and that shrink—a word for inventory loss—any chain stores were experiencing was largely attributable to retail crime.

"[Target is] saying it's $500 million worse than it was the year before, in 2022, and it seems like it was already bad in 2022," Jeremy Bowman, a contributing analyst at investment and consumer advice firm The Motley Fool, told Newsweek.

"It does seem like an issue that's come up in other earnings calls and commentary, certainly with drug stores," he said, citing Walgreens.

While one might think that the issue had arisen due to inflationary pressures pushing more people to shoplift, experts say that petty theft usually accounted for a small proportion of inventory loss. Large sums were being lost through organized retail crime (ORC)—something every consumer has likely experienced the effects of.

They portrayed a vicious cycle in which the pandemic had turbocharged a move towards online shopping, which itself incentivized a greater amount of retail crime, but that retail crime was now also incentivizing more consumers to shop online.

Newsweek reached out to several large retailers about the issue, including Target, Costco, Best Buy and T.J. Maxx, the latter of which declined to comment. Those that responded—Walgreens and Home Depot—confirmed it was a key issue for their companies but declined to offer figures on the scale of the losses they were experiencing.

'Professional' Gangs Stealing in Bulk

In May, a Lululemon store in Georgia made headlines after footage of staff confronting a group of three young men attempting to rob the store of bundles of clothing emerged. Two of the workers were later fired by the company over the incident; many retailers discourage staff from becoming physically involved with shoplifters.

As recently as last Sunday, a video of a "mob" raiding what was purported to be a Nordstrom in Los Angeles, grabbing clothes, handbags and suitcases went viral, earning millions of views.

These may be obvious incidents of ORC in its simplest sense, but not the costliest to retailers, according to Tony Sheppard, a Houston-based loss prevention consultant who spent 25 years working in security and organized retail crime units for several large retailers.

Instead, the incidents that hurt shops the most are the more complex crimes carried out by professional criminal gangs who "steal in bulk," he told Newsweek.

Sheppard said the proportions of the sources of shrink had changed drastically over the last 10 years, going from "internal theft"—employees taking items—being the most predominant cause of inventory loss to external theft by organized criminal gangs.

"External theft...was a small chunk; it was always there, but it was a smaller piece of the pie," Sheppard said. "What's happened is, is that with the increase in organized retail crime, the sheer volume of product that an individual or group can take in any given day has just gone crazy."

He added: "But then you see on the news, you have all these groups that are come in and they're haphazard. They're very unorganized. A lot of younger folks just coming in grabbing stuff running out and all that stuff.

"That's certainly an impact and no doubt about it—and those are the ones that potentially, unfortunately, can become violent, which is obviously the biggest concern. But they're a sliver of that [pie]," he said.

Shoplifting Drug Store NY! A man is escorted out of a drugstore by a police officer on October 26, 2021, in New York City. The National Retail Federation estimated the total cost of shrink in the United States to be $94.5 billion in 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The senior director of loss prevention at ThinkLP estimated that established criminals can steal up to $10,000 in products from a store in some cases, and can often do so without customers noticing.

The established gangs are even able to get stolen products back into the supply chain, he said, and those operating at the highest levels usually knew in advance the quantity of a specific product that needed stealing and the price they would receive for it.

"There're fences that have cleaners, and they clean the product, or they remove stickers or stamps—anything that identifies it as being from a specific retailer—and then they repackage it," Sheppard said. "Then it gets mixed in with legitimate product and sometimes ends up back in the supply chain."

In September, the National Retail Federation estimated the total cost of shrink in the United States to be $94.5 billion in 2021, with the organization's Vice President Mark Mathews noting the "burgeoning threat" of ORC. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, the Centre for Retail Research put the total shrink at $43.3 billion, of which it said just over $4.8 billion was due to organized crime.

In its first-quarter earnings call on May 16, Richard McPhail, chief financial officer of Home Depot, revealed that the company's gross margin had decreased by eight basis points compared to the same time last year, which he said was "primarily driven by increased pressure from shrink."

Evelyn Fornes, a spokesperson for the company, told Newsweek she could not divulge financial details, but said that ORC was "an ongoing issue, and it has been on the rise over the last several years for many retailers."

She added that among the "most targeted items" by criminal gangs that the home improvement chain stocked were power tools, home automation products and wiring devices.

"Retail crime is one of the top challenges facing our industry today," Marty Maloney, a Walgreens spokesperson, told Newsweek. "We are focused on the safety of our patients, customers and team members. We continue to take preventative measures to safely deter theft and aim to deliver the best patient and customer experience."

Consumers Paying the Price

With margins being eaten away by theft, among other factors, it is only natural that some businesses may increase their prices. Bowman said rising costs were certainly an impact on consumers who were "already in an inflationary environment" following the pandemic.

But there are other, obvious signs of the effects of ORC on consumers. Both Bowman and Sheppard noted the various anti-theft devices shops employed to make stealing harder, such as security cases and "pushers," which allow only one product to be removed at a time, making stealing large quantities of items more difficult.

"A lot of these stores, you walk into them and buy something like razors or a popular item," Bowman said. "You see it behind plexiglass and it's locked up, and you've got to go find an employee to unlock it."

Sheppard said retailers aim to "make it difficult for the thief, but still convenient for the legitimate consumer" as using anti-theft devices made shopping harder and therefore "obviously has a detrimental impact to sales," especially when stores are short-staffed.

Target Ehelves Pushers! Empty shelves with "pushers," devices that allow only one product to be dispensed at a time, at a Target in San Ramon, California, on March 12, 2020. The security devices make it more difficult for people to shoplift. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

As well as some customers being witness to or potentially caught up in instances of shoplifting, Sheppard explained that ORC gangs would usually hit several shops of the same type in the same area to increase the number of items they could steal in a single day, causing localized shortages of specific products.

In areas where ORC activity was high, he said, companies may choose to close stores, posing a "significant impact" on the convenience of going shopping, citing Walgreens' 2021 decision to shut five shops in San Francisco, California, due to shoplifting.

All three of these factors pushed more consumers to shop online.

In response to the mention of chain stores that had recently gone into administration, such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Sheppard said ORC was not the sole reason such companies were folding but "it's certainly a factor" in their collapse.

Generally, though, "it definitely does impact the retailer's bottom line...and they wouldn't be talking about it on the stock calls if it wasn't a significant problem," he added.

The Vicious Cycle

As is borne out by the apparent more-than-doubling of shrink between 2019 and 2022, ORC has surged during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. While Sheppard expected there to be more petty theft as a consequence of a rising cost of living, he said the predominant effect of the global crisis on the crime that retailers are subject to was pushing more sales online.

"Covid caused a significant spike in ORC in the U.S., and not necessarily for the reasons you may think as far as people being out of work," he explained. "A lot of customers that would normally never shop online, were forced to shop online, because they wouldn't leave their house...or they wanted something that wasn't non-essential."

"So you had a massive uptick in people making online purchases, which is where a lot of the stolen product ends up," Sheppard added. "So, therefore, the activity skyrocketed to meet the demand from the consumer."

He said ORC had been "steadily increasing prior to that," but that a "perfect storm" of online demand and concerns over liability for injuries sustained during shoplifting encounters had made it go "off the rails."

Walgreens Closing San Francisco! A man walks by a Walgreens store on October 13, 2021, in San Francisco, California. Walgreens closed five of its San Francisco stores due to organized retail shoplifting. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Whereas in the past someone stealing items for resale would have to do so in person and likely for a significant markdown on the label price, criminals can sell their stolen wares online much closer to the original price—and will often be taken up on the offer by consumers looking for a bargain.

"Your return on investment for being a shoplifter—especially a professional shoplifter who does it all the time—is way more lucrative than it used to be," Sheppard said. "It's much easier to resell the product, and the profit margin you're getting per item has just skyrocketed because of online platforms."

To make matters worse, ORC drives more consumers to shop online through the impacts on in-store shoppers it causes—localized stock issues, in particular—in turn giving resellers of stolen goods even more customers.

"It kind of feeds itself," Sheppard said.

"In the longer term, broader sense I think this will just push more businesses to the online channel," Bowman said. "If you think of a company like Amazon, they don't really have stores. I imagine there are some instances of employee theft, but you're not going to have an organized crime ring with exposure to the public in the way brick-and-mortar stores do."

He added, though, that stolen goods being sold online was "a hard thing for individual consumers to fight [with] their own hands" as "even a company the size of Amazon has problems with counterfeit goods on their site" that prompted it in April to set up a program to combat instances on its platform.

Fornes called on Congress and individual states to properly enforce the INFORM Consumers Act, which came into effect in late June and gives online transactions greater transparency, and create "capacity for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute cases through funding federal, state and local task forces."

[f-identity]

[Image description:

Tweet from Mohamad Safa @/mhdksafa which reads:

What we learned from COVID? That oil is worthless in a society without consumption. That healthcare has to be public because health is public. That 50% of jobs can be done from home while the other 50% deserve more than they're being paid. That we live in a society not an economy

/end image description]

This is on point!

[reportwire]

Chinese planners promise 12 million jobs, economic rebound

BEIJING — Chinese economic officials expressed confidence Monday they can meet this year’s growth target of “around 5%” by generating 12 million new jobs and encouraging consumer spending following the end of anti-virus controls that kept millions of people at home. The Cabinet planning officials announced no details of spending or other initiatives to revive growth that slumped to 3% last year,…

[robfinancialtip]

🗽🌍Raja Iqdeimat, a successful pastry firm owner, describes her story. Born in Abu Dhabi, she grew up in several places, including Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, and Kuwait before moving to Turkey, California, and finally New York. Despite her parents' lack of education, she was the first member of her family to pursue higher education and succeed. She credits her parents for instilling entrepreneurial skills and determination in her despite their lack of formal schooling.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🌱Growing up as the youngest member of a large family of nine, Raja felt unusual, but she believed that each family had a unique person who contributed in different ways. Despite lacking a formal education, she describes how her father was a successful businessman who inspired her to pursue her aspirations. Raja's mother, though uneducated, was hardworking and concerned about her family's well-being, imparting in Raja a strong work ethic and tenacity.

😔💼Growing up in different places and seeking a profession in finance was filled with personal losses and difficulties. Despite working as a brokerage manager in Jordan for seven years, dealing derivatives, equities, and bonds, she felt great loneliness following the deaths of her parents when she moved to the United States as a single mother without a broker's license. When the mass layoff in 2008, she was unemployed for six to seven months in California, struggling to support herself and her kid. Realizing that California's emphasis on the film industry did not fit with her career goals, she boldly moved to New York, where she swiftly obtained a job at an insurance firm and began rebuilding her life.

🏙️🎉While working at a New York bank in 2018, her manager questioned her capacity to buy a Manhattan apartment, which proved critical. This distrust motivated Raja to pursue entrepreneurship and independence. Despite difficulties and misgivings, she bravely launched her own business, motivated by her passion for entrepreneurship and need for autonomy. This marked the beginning of Délice Macarons, her venture into the world of cooking pastry, and her journey toward self-reliance and success.

🚀🧁Raja, a dessert shop owner in New Jersey, faced challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite lacking retail expertise, she managed everything from decoration to recruitment, relying on her entrepreneurial flair. She and her chef friend opened their first physical store in Cranford, New Jersey, in January 2020. Despite financial constraints, they shifted their business strategy to focus on fundamental products like bread. Raja's resilience and ability to transform adversity into opportunity remained evident.

🌟🗣️Raja's message encourages listeners, emphasizing the value of endurance, adaptation, and believing in oneself. Despite various barriers, including financial difficulties and the enormous task of beginning a business in a new nation, she stayed determined to succeed, demonstrating that anything is possible with devotion and hard work. Raja's path demonstrates the importance of taking risks, pursuing passion, and never giving up on one's goals. Her tale resonates with individuals who want to overcome obstacles and succeed on their terms. Raja highlights the importance of perseverance, hard work, and financial acumen. She promotes confidence in oneself and pursuing one's goals, emphasizing that hard work combined with passion may lead to success in any activity.

[covid-safer-hotties]

9 Places You're Most Likely to Catch COVID as Summer Wave Surges - Published Aug 19, 2024

The answer "damn near everywhere people go" may shock you.

COVID’s surge shows no sign of slowing down as the biggest summer wave in two years continues. In fact, COVID levels are “very high” in 27 states, according to the CDC’s wastewater data. “Currently, the COVID-19 wastewater viral activity level is very high nationally, with the highest levels in the Western US region,” Dr. Jonathan Yoder, deputy director of the CDC’s Wastewater Surveillance Program, said to CNN. “This year’s COVID-19 wave is coming earlier than last year, which occurred in late August/early September.” Fortunately, death rates and hospitalization rates are nothing like they were during previous waves due to greater immunity and vaccines. But catching COVID still comes with risks, including LONG COVID, which can result in chronic, debilitating illness. So how do you stay safe? Use caution before entering these nine places you’re most likely to catch COVID now, as the summer wave surges.

Crowded indoor events COVID spreads primarily through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks, or breathes, especially in close-contact settings or poorly ventilated areas. “People who are higher risk for getting very sick from COVID-19 should consider taking extra precautions for the next few weeks, like limiting time in crowded indoor settings or wearing a mask in crowded indoor settings. People rarely get COVID-19 outdoors, so outdoor events remain quite safe,” say the experts at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Airports, airplanes and public transportation Given the COVID rates right now, the CDC urges travelers to “get up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines before you travel and take steps to protect yourself and others. Consider wearing a mask in crowded or poorly ventilated indoor areas, including on public transportation and in transportation hubs. Take additional precautions if you were recently exposed to a person with COVID-19. Don’t travel while sick.” They go even further for certain folks: “If you have a weakened immune system or are at increased risk for severe disease, talk to a healthcare professional before you decide to travel. If you travel, take multiple prevention steps to provide additional layers of protection from COVID-19, even if you are up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines. These include improving ventilation and spending more time outdoors, avoiding sick people, getting tested for COVID-19 if you develop symptoms, staying home if you have or think you have COVID-19, and seeking treatment if you have COVID-19.”

Shopping malls Studies are just now coming out with an analysis of what happened during the height of the pandemic. Although times are different now, these results can be instructive. For example, one study published in April 2024 “examines the transmission of COVID-19 through casual contact in retail stores using data from Denmark. By matching card payment data with COVID-19 test results, researchers tracked over 100,000 instances where infected individuals made purchases in stores. They found that customers exposed to an infected person in the same store within a 5-minute window had a significantly higher infection rate in the following week. The study concludes that retail store transmissions contributed notably to the spread of COVID-19, particularly during the period when the Omicron variant was dominant.”

Religious gatherings The transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during religious events has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with a communal gathering in which people, well, commune. “The smallest SARS-CoV-2 droplets can remain airborne and travel farther than six feet. The scientific community does not agree upon what is a ‘safe distance,’ but standing near an infectious person is riskier than standing farther away,” says the AMA. Additionally, “the amount of virus a person is exposed to can influence the chance of infection and the severity; consequently, staying in one place for a longer time creates a higher risk of infection.”

Movie theaters The box office is back, as hits like Deadpool & Wolverine, It Ends With Us, and Alien: Romulus pack them in after a few dark pandemic years of low attendance, the rare Barbenheimer proving the exception to the rule. For movie buffs, it’s a thrill. But check your theater’s ventilation before lining up around the block. One study published this year “investigates the risk factors for COVID-19 transmission during an outbreak in a movie theater in Incheon, South Korea, in November 2021. It involved 48 confirmed cases, primarily among theater attendees, with a high attack rate of 84.8% during one screening. The study found that inadequate ventilation and close proximity among audience members were key contributors to the spread of the virus despite most attendees being fully vaccinated. The study emphasizes the importance of proper ventilation in enclosed spaces like theaters to prevent airborne transmission of COVID-19.”

Healthcare facilities “Some hospitals across the United States are reinstating indoor masking rules amid rising cases and hospitalizations of respiratory illnesses including COVID-19 and influenza,” reported ABC News earlier this year. "Ultimately, health systems, hospitals, places that deliver care are going to see some of the most vulnerable and at-risk individuals -- many, with underlying conditions," Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor, told the network. "Those are especially the places where we want to protect individuals, and so when we have this rapid rise in respiratory illness, those are going to be the first places to try to use measures to reduce chances of transmission, both to protect patients, those receiving care, as well as workforce."

Gyms and fitness studios Common sense will tell you transmission of an airborne disease may increase the more frequently people breathe in and out—as you might do at the gym. One “study looked at the number of aerosol particles 16 people exhaled at rest and during workouts. These tiny bits of airborne matter — measuring barely a few hundred micrometers in diameter, or about the width of a strand of hair, and suspended in mist from our lungs — can transmit coronavirus if someone is infected, ferrying the virus lightly through the air from one pair of lungs to another,” reported the New York Times during the pandemic. “The study found that, at rest, the men and women breathed out about 500 particles per minute. But when they exercised, that total soared 132-fold, topping out above 76,000 particles per minute, on average, during the most strenuous exertion.”

Bars and Nightclubs Just when some of us wanted to drink the most, bars were verboten during the height of the pandemic. There was a good reason to use caution. One study published last year “analyzed over 44,000 COVID-19 cases in Tokyo in 2020, focusing on transmission in various settings, including healthcare and nightlife venues like bars and nightclubs. It found that nightlife settings were more likely to involve clusters of five or more infections and were more likely to lead to further spread compared to other settings. The highest case-fatality rate was observed in healthcare settings. The findings suggest that targeting interventions in nightlife venues could be crucial for controlling COVID-19 transmission, especially during the early stages of an outbreak.”

Restaurants and cafés Last year, the Washington Post asked virus experts if they’d eat in restaurants. Joanna Dolgoff, a pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, offered an answer that may be a decent North Star for you today. “At this time, I will continue to eat in restaurants as long as they are well-ventilated and not overly crowded. If somebody near me shows signs of illness, I will be prepared to leave immediately. If covid cases continue to spike and if illness becomes more severe, I will stop eating inside restaurants until cases subside,” she said.

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Walgreens is planning to close around 1,200 locations, as the drugstore chain and its rivals struggle to define their role for U.S. shoppers who no longer look to them first for convenience. Drugstores that once snapped up prime retail space in towns and cities across the country are in retreat. They’ve been battered by shrinking prescription reimbursement, persistent theft, rising costs and consumers who have strayed to online retailers or competitors with better prices. The boost they received from taking the lead on vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic has long since faded. Walgreens’ announcement Tuesday morning comes as rival CVS Health wraps up a three-year plan to close 900 stores and Rite Aid emerges from bankruptcy, whittled down to about 1,300 locations. As the companies retract, they raise concerns in many communities about access to health care and prescriptions.