[BitwiseFool]

This reminds me of how grocery stores were allowed to remain open, but the greeting card aisle was taped off because they didn't want people going to birthday parties.

It felt like insanity, what if I wanted to send a card in-lieu of going to a gathering? Didn't matter. They weren't going to sell me one.

[ridaj]

Some of these weird closures happened around retail fairness concerns. None of it made much sense. https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-lockdown-france-says-pots-an...

[samatman]

In the US at least, this was mostly state governments trying to define "essential commerce", rather than preventing the sale of things that might lead to large gatherings. The idea was anything you don't need to stay alive, you don't need to be buying.

The armed standoff in Michigan was a direct result of this, Governor Whitmer banned the sale of home improvement goods (such as paint) and garden supplies (including seeds), in the spring, while ordering most of the population to stay at home. This was perceived by the population as unreasonable, and those restrictions were rolled back within a week of the protests.

[unilynx]

Isn't sending a card an alternative to visiting in person (different in the US?)

[harpersealtako]

It seemed there was a story like this every day back in early 2020. The interesting thing was how much variation there was even among different states in the US on identical issues. For example, West Virginia encouraged people to go fishing by waiving license requirements during the lockdowns [1] while Washington completely banned recreational fishing statewide [2].

[1] http://www.wvdnr.gov/2020News/20news020.shtm

[2] https://wdfw.wa.gov/news/wdfw-closes-recreational-fishing-st...

[Simulacra]

I was troubled that Walmart and Target remained open, but the local hardware store had to close. Too big to close, perhaps?

[snypher]

>they didn't want people going to birthday parties.

Did they state this reason? If so that's probably close to madness. But it does seem like a product that is frequently handled and returned to the shelves would be a good vector to suspend...

[beamatronic]

Surely you are joking about the taped-off greeting cards?

[BitwiseFool]

I don't have a photo of my own experience, but here's a news article with one: https://www.cpr.org/2020/04/06/in-summit-county-essential-bu...

[phillc73]

My crazy experience in Austria was that one was unable to buy plastic forks. Packets of plastic knives were still on shelves, but the forks had been removed. I thought it was random luck, but three large supermarkets were the same. I guess they really didn’t want people eating at those forbidden gatherings.

[hnbad]

Seems more likely that they were just in short supply. Plastic forks always sell better than other plastic cutlery. I don't think there's much panic buying of plastic forks but it's the kind of item they probably weren't in a hurry to restock when there's a massive run on toilet paper and pasta.

[ksaj]

In Toronto, the Dollarama until just a few days ago, had many of their shelves blocked off.

You could get food, candy, pet supplies, batteries but you couldn't get books, toys, clothing, headphones...

I thought it was all pretty random and bizarre.

[rsynnott]

Wasn’t common, but a few jurisdictions had a weirdly literal take on essential retail.