Experts: Smaller shops also risky
In most of California, residents can’t go to gyms, bars, wineries, movie theaters, nail salons or barbershops. But people can still go shopping, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Though the state ordered malls shut for counties on its monitoring list on July 13, other indoor retail is allowed to operate with safety standards. Excluding malls, all nine counties in the Bay Area allow indoor retail as of Wednesday. In contrast, a confusing mix of directives have led to other types of businesses, like gyms and barbershops, to reopen and close again.
The latest health order shut down malls because of assumed high risk for coronavirus transmission due to people congregating in larger numbers. But experts say shopping in a smaller store isn’t necessarily safer than in a large mall.
“Smaller, closed spaces are more likely to facilitate transmission,” said Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. “But, at the same time, smaller places
have fewer people, so even if transmission occurs, the number of people getting infected is also going to be small.”
Public health studies have shown that the risk of transmission is higher in indoor spaces, especially when there’s a lack of proper ventilation. San Francisco on Wednesday ruled that the Ferry Building was a mall and shut down 26 shops, citing the stores’ lack of direct outside access.
Robert Siegel, an infectious disease expert at Stanford University, said there are three main things to consider: how close people are to each other inside a store, for how long, and what the virus concentration is in a place.
“There’s nothing inherently better about a small space. A big space with fewer people would be less dangerous than a small space with more people,” he said.
But it’s also about behavior, he added. Are people more likely to hang out with friends at the mall or do they make plans to meet up at a small store? This may be why some small retailers are still allowed to operate from a policy point, he said.
For smallbusiness owners stuck in the middle of a staggered economic recovery and widespread pandemic, the option to stay open means making rent and surviving, but with new restrictions.
For Nongnooch “Noot” Suwannajan, owner of the Love of Ganesha store in San Francisco’s HaightAshbury, it means figuring out how to stay open while making sure customers comply with social distancing rules. In May she created an Instagram account to sell items from her store, which include crystals, rocks, incense, long flowy patchwork tops and skirts, and Hindu and Buddhist deity statues.
The 21yearold store has largely depended on customers walking in and on mass orders for outdoor events like Burning Man, which are canceled this year. Revenue has been cut in half compared with before the pandemic, and expenses are piling up.
“It’s hard but I try my best to let customers know I’m open. It might help them coming into my store,” Suwannajan said with a laugh, referring to the tranquil mood inside her store, which includes a corner meditation space.
But customers aren’t coming like they used to, she said. It’s a widespread decline. Retail sales plunged in the U.S. in April and May before making a slight recovery in June with the clothing sector suffering the most.
Suwannajan has masks for her two employees and requires customers to wear them and has limits on the number of customers allowed inside at one time.
Generally speaking, the people at risk in indoor retail are probably not the customers but rather the employees, said Sally Picciotto, an associate researcher in environmental health at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.
“They are spending many consecutive hours in an enclosed space and thus have time to receive a high enough ‘dose’ of the virus if another employee is infected,” Picciotto said.