Okay, so I go to the NoFrills grocery store and there is a small lineup of people waiting to get into the store … and they are all packed together like sardines. What the heck?

I looked at the lineup and decided there was no way my back, knee and hip were going to let me stand there even that long, so I left. Luckily, my purchase could be put off for a bit.

There are two issues here. Social distancing was entirely defeated by the lineup. And it’s an impossible situation for those of us with disabilities. Then I came up with the idea of a “virtual queue”. People could either get a number and wait (bring a folding chair, sit apart from each other), or wait in their cars and be paged by an app when it is their turn.

I had the whole thing designed in my head by the time I got home, but when I went home and went online I found there is already plenty of software available for this: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=virtual+queue+app&ia=web.

A smaller store that can’t afford the app, can at least buy one of those number-ticket machines that they have at any deli. People could pick a tab, and stand far enough apart from each other without losing their place in line. Or they could bring a folding seat, or sit in a scooter while they wait their turn.

I am planning on emailing the companies I do business with to ask them to consider implementing something like this. Here is a form letter that you can use, if you would like to do the same. Please feel free to copy, paste, share and forward at will.

Please let me know if you get any positive responses to the idea, and I welcome your feedback!