When taking a trip to West Plains, MO this week, I was amazed at the number of parking lots that were covered in ice. No salt was down and it was hazardous to attempt getting from my car to the door of the building. Why was that?
Why The Ice?
This has an easy answer. Our area experienced cold weather with some wet precipitation. It didn’t take long for driveways, sidewalks, and streets to freeze over.
The Question
The question is not, “How did we get the ice?” The question is, “Why do we still have ice?” Slipping across layers of ice trying to get to the door before falling is a danger. I’m middle aged. Although my children enjoy ‘skating to the door’. I do not. I cannot imagine what an elderly person would do. Even the courthouse square was covered in ice on the sidewalks.These ice rinks also deterred my shopping. I would have stopped at two additional stores. However, I did not want to cross more ice, park on more ice, deal with more ice.
Where Is The Salt?
Then I stopped to think. This is unusual. In the past when there was ice, businesses spread salt to rid sidewalks and parking lots of ice. This allowed shoppers to freely spend money inside the stores. Can businesses not afford salt? Where is their money going?
COVID or Ice
Ahhh, covid prevention. Businesses need to spend their own money on hand sanitizers, face masks, additional cleaners. What are the chances you will come down with a serious case of covid versus what are the chances you could fall and break an arm? The majority of businesses do not have a huge surplus of funds. When the government makes you adhere to these practices, not much is left over for things like salt. In essence, government is dictating businesses to keep hand sanitizer available for everyone. If the customer can make it to your door after falling on the ice and breaking a bone, or slipping in front of a moving vehicle that can’t stop on the ice, then this customer can shop.
What To Do?
As a customer, we do have input. We can choose where to spend our hard earned money. We can encourage businesses to salt their lots and walkways. Negative actions also have results. By not shopping at certain businesses, we are keeping our money from places that do not care for the customer, do not care if they go to the hospital with a broken bone from falling on ice in front of the business. And we can let the local Chamber of Commerce know what we are doing and why.
Perhaps, they can creatively come up with a solution, not a choice of covid or ice.
