Safe distancing all but went out the window last weekend, a day after Jalisco authorities lifted the partial “emergency” two-week Covid lockdown.
The reason crowds returned to shopping malls and “corridors” in such large numbers was “El Buen Fin” (Mexico’s Black Friday), this year extended to 12 days of consumer discounts. Malls and their parking lots overflowed, and long lines formed as bargain hunters passed through temperature checks before being allowed inside.
According to one visitor to Plaza Andares, most shoppers kept on masks and made efforts to maintain their distance from others, but some stores, including the upmarket Liverpool department store, were at times unable to control the flow of clients through their narrow aisles and enforce the four square meters per person rule mandated by the state government.