Whether you drive back to the Main-Taunus-Zentrum after work, whether you want to do your errands on the Zeil or in another city center in the region: these days, people do their shopping with a feeling of great pity. Because in the shops there is a yawning emptiness. Although it cannot really be explained in view of the large number of those vaccinated and those who have recovered, it seems as if the introduction of the 2-G rule had pulled the plug in retail. Shopping in store on the spot? Then don't. Perhaps the rapid spread of the omicron variant also contributes to the fact that people are looking for special protection against infection and avoid larger gatherings of people: But you should be told that there is currently no need to worry in retail.
To put it a little more seriously: The regulation certainly makes sense in restaurants or pubs, because there the masks are removed when you sit – and people stay in the same room for a long time.
Anyone who walks through a shop keeps their mask on.
In addition, you don't stay in one place for long periods of time.
Even trying on a pair of pants or even choosing a new washing machine cannot be compared to the time it takes to eat dinner.
In almost two years of Corona reporting, there have been no easy-to-find reports that a store could have been identified as a Corona hotspot.
A chain of other problems
In the federal states of Bavaria and Lower Saxony, retailers are already exempt from the corresponding access regulations. In Hesse, the state government should not be forced to do so by a court, but rather act on its own. According to the most recent count, around 80 shops are empty on the Zeil alone and in its immediate vicinity. There are certainly a variety of reasons for this, but the main reason for this concentration is likely to be Corona. The vacant stores lead to a chain of other problems. They make a visit to the city center even less attractive, people who you don't want to meet at the end of the day or at the weekend conquer the free space in the streets; they pull the overall picture even further down.This development will not be reversed with the reopening of even half of the shops that are now empty.
Of course, we must continue to exercise caution.
Vaccinations remain important, even if Omikron celebrates its expansive success in large numbers, even with boosters.
Keep your distance, wear a mask - and yet: It remains an ongoing task to check the proportionality of all measures again and again - and to correct them in case of doubt.