Still won't go to shops after 4 weeks
Since stores reopened and returned to work 4 weeks ago, I still won't return to browse in shops and stores I used to like going into before the crisis or even go to the hairdressers because I am still apprehensive to even go into a shop and look for a new book or new clothes. All I have done is just go to work and then come back home and stay at home on my days off. I'm starting to feel frustrated and missing the 'old normality' and want to return to that normality and not have to feel worried all the time being out around people anymore and wearing masks and sanitising my hands.
I do also feel like I am wasting valuable time and a year of missing out on life feeling this way by not going to town.
I'm the same. I think I've just lost my confidence in going out alone, which is a huge shame because I used to be so independent and was always going in and out of shops and completing other errands. Now I can only go out if my boyfriend comes with me, and if I do go into a shop alone I find myself standing nervously at the door if I can't see how many people are already in the shop. I am too shy to call across the shop "can I come in?"
I think they are relaxing the stupid rules a bit more now and are making everyone wear a mask in shops, rather than keep shouting at customers to stay outside, as customers do not like being barked at. But I'm still afraid to get on a bus alone and go shopping, because I'm worried I'll mess up and be yelled at. If I get yelled at, I know I'll burst into tears because I'm rather emotionally fragile at the moment with the stress I've got going on in my life right now (not related to the pandemic). But people don't understand that unless they've had similar experiences.
_________________
Female
Until this global pandemic is over, I have given up shopping at thrift stores. They are just too crowded and I do not trust them to do the proper cleaning that is needed. It sucks because I love to bargain hunt, but it is just not worth the risk. I have also given up on shopping at the big box stores for the same reason. Walmart has too large of crowds for my liking, so I have started shopping at stores that have much smaller traffic in them.
Haven't been into a shop since early on when the pandemic was new. It's Walmart kerbside pickup for groceries and mail order for everything else so far. If lockdown made sense during the first peak, it makes more sense now the infection rate is twice what it was then. If I were in the UK I'd have no choice but to go into a shop occasionally (no kerbside pickup there), but I'd minimise it. The infection rate has come down a lot there but they've lost the downward trend and it's threatening to come back any time, so I wouldn't feel safe indoors whatever the politicians and businesses say. Luckily I don't need "retail therapy" to make me happy, there's a lot more to my life than shopping, so it doesn't upset me to keep avoiding it, just that it feels weird sometimes.