SAFETY ISSUES FOR CONSUMERS FROM ESSENTIAL GOODS STORES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PANDEMIC - COVID 19

Abstract

In the midst of the pandemic crisis — COVID 19, governments limit access for people to public places, without a Digital Green Certificate, except for essential goods commercial unit. Research has shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is highly contagious and spreads more easily in enclosed spaces and crowded environments. In this context, this paper is included. The research approach is developed with the help of the probability concept and the calculation schemes of the probability theory — Bernoulli’s scheme. It quantifies the risk of contamination and the safety at any given time of a consumer in a store of essential goods according to two independent variables: the composition of the community — the share of people with and without “Digital Green Certificate” located in the store and the number of contacts (individual and simple interactions) they have, due to the conditions given by the social experience of shopping, the arrangement of the store, the time spent in that public place and the duration of that contact. This study does not take into account medical variables influencing the risk of contamination. The results of the research reveal some innovative aspects of the quantitative expression of consumer safety, establishing the probability of the occurrence of the “maximum danger area of contamination” and presenting the “beneficial situations” of visiting the essential goods commercial unit. The study concludes that the indicator expressed in terms of probability of contamination risk can provide useful data to management and customers to improve the commercial quality of the store in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords

• covid-19 pandemic
• probabilistic model
• essential goods commercial unit
• digital green certificate
• consumer safety
• simple individual contacts
• consumer community composition