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Coronavirus Shopping

Shopping Malls Reopening Guidelines

Over the weekend two PDFs made their rounds on social media, one related to the reopening of Avenues, the other to the reopening of Marina Mall. You can download both of them below if you want to go through them:

Avenues Mall Reopening Guidelines
Marina Mall Reopening Guidelines

Here are some highlights on how they’re gonna try and make shopping a safe experience after the lockdown:

– Avenues don’t mention opening hours but Marina Mall’s will be 10AM to 10PM on weekdays and till 11PM on weekends
– Both malls will reduce the number of entrances
– Avenues will have separate entrances and separate exits
– Your temperature will be taken on the way in
– Employees and customers both required to wear masks and gloves
– Marina Mall capacity will be reduced to 30%, Avenues doesn’t mention a reduction
– Stores will limit the number of customers inside
– No valet parking
– No car wash services
– Prayer rooms will be closed
– Smoking rooms will be closed
– Fitting rooms will be closed
– Public seating areas will be removed/closed
– Marina Mall will allow restaurants to have a seating capacity of 30%. Restaurants must use disposable cutlery.
– Avenues, on the other hand, won’t allow restaurants to have dine-in just takeaway

There are more details in the PDFs but that’s basically the gist of it. Not sure how Marina Mall is planning to limit the capacity of the mall to 30%, does that mean there will be long lines outside the mall similar to supermarkets? If there are multiple entrances and exits how are they gonna know how many people are coming in or leaving? They also mention they will limit shoppers to a maximum of 2 hours of shopping, how are they gonna do that?

Also curious if coffee shops will be open and how do I walk and drink coffee with my mask on? Might have to drink niqabi style I guess.

59 replies on “Shopping Malls Reopening Guidelines”

Dang, All I wanted was a red velvet cake and to exchange a pant at hnm, but if it has to include a rectal temperature probe,a bunch of folks in hazmat suits hosing me down and telling me to gtfo in two hours…..hard pass. Ill bake it myself and hopefully grow into the pants.

Drink the coffee in your car or at home, is that so hard? Also, shops should let the customers pack their items to maintain social distance.

I soo totally agree with this. Also, to train arab people to be independent sometimes and not rely too much on migrant workers.

If we were living in the period 1976- 1978, when businesses were flourishing all round and there was roaring commercial activity in Kuwait, we’d prolly not be getting into this premature opening of one of the world’s largest mall. Ideally, they needed to have waited for up to 14 days from the last laboratory confirmed case of Covid 19 in Kuwait before opening up the Avenues or 360. Now with the money supply getting stretched and a slump in businesses across the board, they are left with no choice but to open up.

Having said that I hope they dont make the same mistakes as some of us did with our subways and our metros curtailing the frequency of service- you do not limit the number of mall entrances and exits – instead you amp it up even more to prevent crowding and clustering of shoppers.

Along with masks they should make available face shields which can be purchased by those who think they may be vulnerable.

Further and more stores should encourage contact less credit and debit cards without PINs to avail 20% cashback or further discounts.

Finally the food court should be at 30% functionality with vendors taking turns to stay open different days of the week while the other fine dine and sit downs should maintain 6ft separation between guests and only accept reservations.

Wall mounted hånd sanitizers everywhere should be par for the course. I Hope they no longer bring out print edition of the Avenues magazine and use airport style thermal body scans instead of temperature guns which are simply not scale-able.

As for the cinemas, once weekly fumigation foll by 24 hr closure of the screens should suffice. Movie patrons should have 6 ft separation between them which would mean the Cinema operators would need to bite the dust for a little bit longer. Food concessions should not be opened till the curve has started falling. Also Vox Cinema style drive ins are a need of the hour.

Some of us actually want to try and go back to a bit of normal, not everyone wants to live at home until a vaccine comes out. I was also just questioning how things work because that’s how my mind works is that ok? Do I have your permission to continue to think that way?

But, I’m curious, how does customers packing their own clothes work (and promote social distancing)? So I’ll scan the item into the POS myself, then remove the security tag and then pack it? Don’t I still need to interact with the cashier to pay for it? What if it’s a TV? How do I do that?

In the context of clothing retail, you just put the items in your bag or the bag they give you when they scan the items for you. In my experience, the cashiers tend to “accidentally” drop my items or they like to pick up the shopping bags from the ground if they ever fall down and then start touching everything else, which is why I would prefer to pack my own items.

Have you ever heard of self-checkouts? If it works outside of Kuwait, why can’t it work here?

Yes. Zahra and Waitrose have them in Dubai Mall. Don’t think it’s logistically or technically possible for every store to have them.

Correction: you mean businesses can’t survive staying closed. The whole country is gonna open up not just malls, I’m just sharing the safety guidelines malls are putting in place but the rest of the country will start opening up as well.

What is the rush to open malls? It defeats the whole purpose of keeping safe by staying home all these weeks. A few weeks of abstinence will be beneficial in the long run!

On that note, why cant businesses go online instead? if restaurants are closed, allow them to deliver. Those willing to take the risk will order.

A few weeks? It’s been a few months already… the country can’t stay shutdown forever and we all can’t be in lockdown till a vaccine or cure comes out. Like the rest of the world, Kuwait will have to open up.

The rest of the world opened up already because the epidemic in their country was cleared and cases have reached their peak and declined thereafter in those countries. Kuwait’s cases are still either fluctuating or remaining steady on a day-to-day basis.
So logically speaking, curfew and lockdown should continue. Maybe not on full mode though like now, but a partial one.
If they decide to open up everywhere now as you said, it would defeat the entire purpose of the months of lockdown we had to endure. What was the point of all of it then? If we still have 600-900 new cases everyday?

As someone pointed out, keeping malls and closed areas off limits for now and just keeping online deliveries makes more sense. Yeah, it sucks hard not to be able to go out after all this time. But there are still around 15,000 sick people in Kuwait who have not been cured. If they want to open up the malls, I want to be able to enjoy myself. Not be donning a mask,
being tense, and afraid of touching any surfaces or being paranoid about it all. it’s going to be weird going to a mall for the purpose of leisure and unwinding, online to be faced with such guidelines . Where is the fun in that? I’ll pass.

People are already afraid to go out into public places for obvious reasons.

Them making entry more complicated will exacerbate that phobia and make it too much of a hassle for real shoppers.

They will mostly attract desperate teenagers who are bored of home stay.

Maybe a possible solution is to make entry for 21+

I suggested the idea to filter the unnecessary teenagers who screw around, without actually shopping.So more serious shoppers can get in, without queue, given that malls will open with reduced capacity

It’s more beneficial to restrict access to the population that will more likely buy stuff, when you are in a situation where you can’t let everyone in at once.

Obviously not everyone over 21 is mature, but that’s a reasonable age limit for adult shoppers.

You don’t know what people are going through.. I’m pregnant and should be giving birth in two months and haven’t bought a single thing! Even before things shutdown, online retailers didnt have sizes.. so I’ll be def one of the first people that would be lining up at the doors to buy things..

Again its a choice, if you are scared and worried then stay at home..

They don’t. These are just guidelines for when they do eventually open but the government hasn’t announced any reopening plans yet.

Also, they should make appointments for malls so that they can limit how many people can go to them, just like with the supermarkets.

I’m not saying Kuwait shouldn’t open up, but it’s too soon to open up. Personally, I think waiting 2 more weeks would make a world of a difference.

People might think oh, USA has 20,000 daily cases and kuwait barely has over 1,000. Based on population, 1,000 daily cases is a CRISES.

I’d rather stay at home for another month or so rather than live in a sci-fi movie for a year or two. If we extend this lockdown JUST A BIT, it will help flatten the curve sooner. This way, we are just dragging on. I know it’s hurting businesses drastically, but ‘extending’ the outbreak will hurt it more.

I know I’m about to get a lot of criticism and I do apologize in advance, but I no longer feel safe and I am terrified of catching the virus because I don’t know what will happen with me or my family.

I miss normality so much, but I’m willing to sacrifice it if it means we end this outbreak. If Italy and Spain did it, so can we.

You say it’s too soon to open but what is that based on? The country has been pretty much shut down for over 2 months now so what makes you think that 2 more weeks will solve everything? 2 more months of lockdown might solve everything as well should we all stay home?

We can all leave comments here with our opinion on what we think is the best option but neither of us work in the government or know the exact details of whats going on. Life won’t be back to normal for a very long time, not until a vaccine or a cure gets developed so until that happens we need to learn how to live with this in the safest way possible.

Fuck until this day people still don’t know what social distancing is. last week I was in line at sultan center to get in for my appointment, I waited until there were maybe 2 people left in line and then I joined it leaving maybe 3 meters gap between me and the guy in front of me. Then out of the blue this lady joins the line behind me and is so close to me that one more step and she’d trip over me. like come on people wtf. Or, yesterday the guy outside Sultan who scans the barcode, he had his mask on around his chin. Then people wonder why infection rates aren’t going down.

I don’t think staying locked in for 2 more weeks is gonna help us much as educating people the importance of social distancing, wearing protection properly and punishing those who break the rules.

I do understand the point from both of you, but mark the country was not on a full lockdown only these past 20 days were, before for me life was normal in terms of partial curfew the only thing that was closed the retail malls were closed and governments.

but all business were up and running even shops they were closed recently before curfew in a week or two weeks.

People were going to shops (mobile phones/electronics store..etc ) and shopping and goings to sultans/lulu/city centers going out for walks and going to beach…etc, I do understand the point if they did prolong the full curfew just a bit.

yes you are right people needs to educate them self on mask and social distancing, until today people don’t understand it and dont even wear masks, god since the crisis started people are sticking to each other more now.

The thing is Mark we haven’t been on lockdown for 2 months, people like you and me who are educated may have been, but many others haven’t. You think the people in your example were staying at home when there was that shitty half lockdown?
For the record I also don’t think extending complete lockdown is the best idea, but entertainment should definitely be shut for now

not all business have been closed, all shops were closed by mid April, then everyone reverted to online and delivery until may 10.

now we can say most businesses have been completely due to lock for 20 days, most businesses who were effected that doesn’t do online sales via any channel that’s the most business that suffered the most.

Are you serious?

Shops started closing down mid March with 99% of them NOT being able to offer delivery. The ones who were able to set up delivery or had delivery before the closure were a very small minority. This is also just retail we’re talking about and doesn’t include all the companies that had to either close down or try and shift their business to work from employees homes. But again, most people can’t just work from home so a lot of people have been without work all this time and companies without an income.

So no, you’re wrong.

“You say it’s too soon to open but what is that based on?”

Exactly. How do we know when its time to go back? Will Ministery of Health just make a guess? Will government sleep on MoH advice and make a decision the next morning?

Everywhere else there were clear and well defined targets. For instance “phase 1 of opening up will be implemented after 14 days of consecutive decline in discovered cases”. This appears to be implemented in a lot of places. It is measurable, makes sense, and gives everyone target they can actually work towards (quarantined people have more reason to stay home feeling they can make a difference, government knows very well how and when they’ll make their decision, and MoH can launch calculated strategic ‘attacks’ on hotpots to relieve other parts of the country).

Here? We know nothing. We have to wait for Thursday CM meeting to find out whether or not we’ll have to go to work on Sunday! Seriously?!

And even if they ask us to go back to work on Sunday, personally I don’t have confidence in their decisions anymore. As a Kuwaiti citizen I find myself today led to believe that the partial return to normal will not be based on health indicators but rather on other factors. Decision makers want to take risks? fair enough if they believe they’re capable of managing the outcomes of that risk. But here the risk is illness and for me, with at volnurable parents and living in multifamily house, I’m not going to play along in that game and putting my parents life at risk. Especially not after losing my confidence in MoH following some of their recent statements that contradict the reality we witness (Kuwait is small, everyone knows everyone else, tell it how it is or keep your mouth shut. Don’t try to mislead cuz you’ll lose your integrity).

The stakes differ from one person to another. The problem with majority of us Kuwaitis is that we are civil servants and we live in extended family household. Civil servants means our managers might require us to return to office only to be present. It is not because there are tasks that require our presence to be done; it is not because we are generating revenue for our employers; it is only because the head of our institutions wants to appear that they have followed the CM orders in opening the institution and have staff present. Then you have the fact that we live with our parents, grand parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews. In a typical Kuwaiti household you’ll have multiple families living together with ages ranging from 0 to 100. People sharing the same kitchen, same utensils, and so on. Is it really worth putting families at risk?

You know, the more I type, the more helpless I feel, and the more pissed I get.

My brother in-law works for one of the local government owned companies. They have remote-work system up and running. They’ve been working from home since March. They have the ability to continue working remotely. Yet, for no clear reason, they were informed that they’ll have to be physically present in the office starting June. This is one real life example of how managers make decision not because of business demand but merely to satisfy “big boss” who want to appear in good image in front of the government and decision makers. Do you think my sister wont come and see my parents after the curfew is lifted? Do you think my parents wont hold her kids and kiss them? Do you think I’ll be able to convince them to social distance? Do you think I’ll be able to convince them that the government is delegating the risk management to their own hands and they’ll only have themselves to blame?

Then you are free to stay at home if you want. I want to get back to work. I have been staying at home for over 2 months and my health is actually getting worse by just staying indoors

I think they should open everything now as closing had zero effect it’s now all about common sense n taking precaution wearing gloves n mask while visiting public areas limiting the number of people in malls will b fine if they give a time limit as eating or just stroll-in is already not considered.

Actually it did help, it slowed down the rate of change (upward trend) of increasing cases and stabilized it… this tweet shows my point (not me btw)
***LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN. ONLY SHARE OFFICIAL SOURCES***

Mark come on, that was literally just a graph of the rate of change of the cases

Anyways it’s a plot that showed how numbers have stabilized at 900-1000 in the past week. before lockdown those numbers were increasing, but when the lockdown was made the rate of change stopped, thanks to the lockdown

Fine… atleast we just saw concrete proof the lockdown worked with today’s decrease in new cases

Also before they were testing people after they finished their two weeks of quarantine, now they aren’t (My mom was let out yesterday and they didnt retest her nor anyone else in the facility.. they are only doing it to people who need it).. so that mightve led to the decreased testing as well…

That’s a great point, Mark. I didn’t notice until now, but you’re right. They’ve been reducing the NP swans over the last three or four days.

Not sure how it has been implemented, but the 30% capacity was set by UAE for malls, restaurants and even offices once their curfew was lifted.

this may be stupid, not sure if it’s already been mentioned, but wouldn’t it be a good idea to keep the one time per week shopping permit for a few weeks with the difference that you can apply to go to any supermarket regardless of your location? this way u could still keep track of who went where and when, no crowds and no panic buying in case numbers go up again.

Wouldn’t you consider it a reservoir for potential transmission? Testing results of co-op volunteers and employees over the last few weeks contradict your premise.

Results of tests taken on volunteers and employees of co-ops over the last few weeks contradict your premise.

The funny thing in these comments are, the people criticising of malls being opened ‘Too soon’ are gonna be the first people in those same very malls.

I don’t care either way about the malls – we rarely go to malls. Our usual trips are for a specific store (like park, in to the store, and back out), or lunch & a movie. And we try to get there and leave before 3pm on any day, since no one in my family likes crowds, least of all my husband. Most of the stores that we would go to the mall for offered delivery before the full lockdown, so I am more than happy to continue using delivery versus going to the malls. I hope all the shops that set up delivery before the full lockdown, continue to offer delivery.

Gotta appreciate the fact that they are posting these guidelines well before they actually open the economy so, by the time the country reopens, the guidelines are already drilled in our brains.

Yeah, 15 days and the residents in my neighborhood STILL can’t crack the “wear a face mask” code!

Mark, you seem to be more worried about Business than Peoples health !

a few more days of lockdown wouldn’t harm anyone, i understand the frustration of being locked, but keep in mind that would help to reduce the cases,

there shouldnt be a rush to open up public places until the situation stabilizes

Healthy people = Healthy Business

simple common sense you know

If that’s what you got then you misunderstood everything I’ve said.

I’m curious though because you said “A few more days of lockdown wouldn’t harm anyone”. What will a few more days accomplish? Please enlighten us.

Heh, the moment permission is given for malls, you’ll see crowds trying to get in. Heck give them 2 hours of free time during the quarantine, they turn into health nuts.
It’s obvious when you take something away from people, they end up craving it drastically.
The reopening, if not managed well, could turn this into an Italy situation for the old people of Kuwait.
Countries with much larger populations and less cases are taking it much slowly. kuwait hasn’t even properly stabilized in the number of cases.

Why cannot they keep the Avenues and 360 closed over the weekends to avoid a melee. Best would be to keep it open longer 8.30 – 22.00 hrs Sunday thru Thursday. Fumigate the whole place on Friday allow one day post fumigation without visitors and then open it to the public on Sundays and for longer. This will help decongest the mall. Till the dust has settled on Corona charge people for parking this way you will control the footfalls.
The vaccine even if it comes wont be before Jan 2021, if we are lucky. Heaven forbid it should not gø the HIV or dengue virus way where the vaccine remains elusive.
People in face shields with masks on is a better thing to have than people wearing masks with gloves on.

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