Northern Ireland shoppers warned a world of change is on the way

Colin Breen: If you think I’m standing in a queue for hours to buy anything, you’re seriously mistaken. Just keep the doors closed. People can buy what they need online without traffic wardens and long queues. This spells the death knell for shops. I’ve worked right through this situation and I’m fine.

Jacqueline Hughes Gordon: Well, could someone tell Marks and Spencer? No social distancing measures once you actually enter their food hall and no sense of the need for any. The staff said, when questioned, that — and I quote — “the customers like it this way”. Beggars belief.

Nicola Peden: Life cannot be like this in future. We cannot live in isolation indefinitely. There needs to be light at the end of the tunnel.

Margaret Vaughan: It is not what I would like, but I think it is necessary to keep customers from passing on the virus. At the same time, I don’t see how stores can operate without toilets. Without toilets, I don’t think people could shop in towns and cities very easily.

Mark Smith: Shops need to open. Everyone is responsible enough to keep distance. We don’t need to be queuing outside shops for half-an-hour to get in. Otherwise, most people will shop at home online.

Geordie Canavan: While the politicians are getting battered left, right and centre, scientists can’t agree and constant uncertainty seems to be the new norm.

Steven Mcgivern: One of the suggestions on the news from an architect was to close roads so shops could widen and adhere to social distancing.

Bobby Fleming: I remember the Troubles, when we had to go through barriers and be searched before entering shops. But Northern Ireland people are resilient. It’s hard times, but we will get through them, as we did then.

Tom Smyth: Don’t give a damn. Just as long as they’re open and I can get into them to shop.

Laura Elizabeth Brown: Our way of life is not gone forever. It’s gone for now and for the foreseeable future, not forever.