Supporting the economy is a moot point right now IMO. They're cutting back staff anyway. And with most of the country out of work, people aren't, or shouldn't be, spending money on unnecessary things like toys. A roof over their heads and food is what's important. We're not headed for a recession, it's gonna be a depression.
Natural light and toys don't mix. The fan is there to help air circulate. Also, I'm only in there during lessons - otherwise I'm on my desktop that's next to my back door for other work.
I only do opportunistic window shopping for toys when I'm out buying essentials, and honestly, it feels safer in those stores than in supermarkets. Obviously supermarkets are going to have people in them buying essentials, but when I go to toy aisles and toy stores I'm literally the ONLY customer there. So yeah, social distancing still being completely observed. I'm also wearing a mask and I wash my hands frequently (I also shower and dump my clothes in the laundry straight after getting home). When shopping for essentials I'm going to be around a lot of people, even at 1.5m distance (but sometimes closer because you can't maintain that distance all the time, e.g. passing people in supermarket aisles etc.), but when briefly popping into toy aisles and shops, these places are completely deserted. And I'm only in there for a few seconds - take mental note of what toys are there to report it on the sightings thread then leave. It's not like in previous days where I might loiter and stare at toys through the packaging etc.
It helps that when I do my grocery shopping really early in the morning; even ordinarily there aren't too many people shopping for toys at 08:00~09:00.
I'm also willing to aggressively defend my 1.5m personal space when I'm in public. I haven't needed to do it yet, but if anyone were to violate this space when it's avoidable, I am more than willing to use my booming teacher voice to strike fear into their soul.
P.S.: Maybe I should invest in some deliberately stinky perfume and wear it to keep others at bay.
Today's new federal restrictions include - no more than 2 people together in public that aren't from the same house, and we are only allowed to go shopping for necessary items now... which means we could get in trouble if we are caught buying any toys.
I think that would prompt non-grocery stores to close down now, as there wouldn't be enough "essential" items for them to make enough money to stay open.
I wonder if this will mean Post Offices will close up now as well, as they are privately owned franchise stores, so if they aren't doing enough business at the moment, they might follow Myer's example and shut down for a while.
WA is also looking to close their borders... not that there would be a lot of land traffic across the WA border, so with international travel shutting down, it will pretty much close down their airports completely.
With every person arriving into the country being quarantined for 14 days at a hotel, it should mean the focus can be shifted towards responding to and limiting "community spread" cases (ones spread between people who haven't been overseas).
Some good news, infection rates are now slowing down in NSW since people started staying at home. Hopefully this trend will be shown soon in other states.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KipR6ieFVhU
Some students have noticed.
I can't see Target/KMart etc (Myers has already shut down) being closed down at this stage - clothes etc are sort of essential items too. It's possible that they could move to online ordering, though they'd have to improve their online ordering sytems re. selection quite a bit (for a lot of things, not just 'random assortment of TFs'). I imagine toys from those sorts of places will still be available. Toystores proper will probably have to close though.
I'd also assume that post offices would be classed as Essential Services, if only because package deliveries will probably ramp up quite a bit.
In Tassie at least veterinary clinics have been classed as 'non-essential' - not sure I agree with that one personally. My neck of the woods is a bit rural (not Trev-level rural but still country towns surrounded by farmlands), so the vet clinics are pretty important (e.g. you go to the vet's for anti-venom if you have a snake bite), and if people are going to be isolated at home for an extended period of time then their pets can help a lot with the social isolation factor (thus reducing the amount of people breaking quarantine/mingling with other people).
I know that post offices could be considered essential, but the stores themselves are privately owned, so just like other stores that were allowed to still operate but closed down, some or all of them could close up if they aren't making enough money and they don't get government help to keep them open.
I don't have exact numbers, but there are still post offices operated 'by corporate' according to a long-serving Australia Post employee. The Australia Post 'Business Centre' I go to is also owned and operated by Australia Post. That particular Business Centre does a lot of parcel processing so it is likely it would continue to operate.
Older people still seem to pay bills at the post office, as well as buy stamps for letters there. They still receive paper bills and pay them at the post office with cash.