Gallop issued a new poll that said people who listen to Fox News and other conservative news outlets are more likely to think the Coronavirus pandemic is overhyped, and the disease is "‘less deadly or as deadly as’ influenza" than people who listed to CNN and similar liberal news services. [1]
This sounds like one of those surveys whose results were predetermined by finding people who could answer the questions. It apparently did not include the major television networks. I couldn’t find any recent statistics for which station is Albuquerque is most popular; such information is known to advertisers, but they pay to receive it. [2]
I suspect the primary news source now is whichever one has some kind of programming that’s interesting or amusing when so many shows are not being produced. One has no brand or station loyalty when one is bored. A group of Democratic supporters is spending less on television advertising because people are "visiting local news websites and checking Facebook more frequently." [3]
I suspect people’s perception of the virus are influenced by events. If they didn’t know it was a problem before the governor closed the public schools, they did when their children were home during the week. This influenced people, like the woman I met in a local drugstore, who bought paper products and cleaning supplies because they heard from relatives or friends they were getting scarce. [4]
Shopping patterns may make a difference. I went into town again yesterday. Cashiers in the local grocery store still were standing behind plexiglass shields and wearing gloves and masks. The post office had added plexiglass since last week, and the woman who handed me a package had added safety goggles to her protective garb.
I saw fewer customers wearing masks and gloves. Both are disposable. People wore them at first, but now they may have run out and probably can’t get replacements. [5] I was very thankful the women who sneezed as she passed me coming out of the post office was wearing a mask.
There was some sense that normalcy has returned. Both the mineral water and crackers were on sale. The one may have been a clearance item that hadn’t sold well, but the other was a large shipment sent by the manufacturer to sell crackers. Producers of non-essential foods still need to make money to pay their employees and creditors.
For the first time I drove north of Fairview to the big box with a garden center. It’s spring, and contracts for plants and supplies were signed months ago. Vendors are shipping, so they get paid, whether of not the retail outlets have the same needs.
I wanted a replacement shrub, and thought is it worth dying for? I would have preferred to go to Albuquerque, but wasn’t willing to take the risk. I decided to be cautious: if the store was busy and had long lines I wouldn’t go in. I grabbed the first shrub available, without looking at it carefully, and got in line.
This is where management’s attitude was important. It was obvious employees were not expected to wear protective gear. A few did wear masks, but not many. Those wearing gloves may have done so anyway to protect their hands from the stock. Barberry bushes and roses have thorns.
I think only a couple customers were wearing masks; one was hand made. None wore gloves.
There are differences between the customers for different stores. The less disposable income people have, the more they are going to shop where things cost less. The local grocery store, no doubt, is more expensive.
The post office has two types of customers. Those who pay to have a box, like me, instead of getting free delivery at their homes. People with PO boxes are the ones who are receiving packages, often from Amazon. The others only go the counter to buy stamps to pay bills or buy money orders because they don’t have checking accounts.
This particular garden center seems to be cheap, but in fact is more expensive than local nurseries because it only sells perennial items in large pots, and annuals in individual pots rather than six-packs. One only knows this if one shops in both types of places; those without surplus funds don’t venture into places they believe will be more expensive.
I wanted a shrub in a quart-sized pot, which usually costs about $10. All the garden center carried was two-gallon-sized ones that cost $20. It only had 75' garden hoses by the check-out lanes. I had gone to the local hardware two weeks ago to buy a replacement hose because it carried 25' and 50' lengths, as well as 75' and 100’ ones. My shorter hose may have cost more per foot, but the total cost was less.
I suggested above that people hear news about the virus from whatever media is available, radio, television, cable, or smart phones. People don’t evaluate it by the political bias of the source, but by what they see and hear around them.
Chris Cuomo’s reference to chicken soup [6] would have made more sense in New York than in New Mexico. Since the time of Sam Levinson and Jewish comedians in the 1970s, people have known it was a Jewish folk remedy. Other things are used in Española.
That news story had no influence on local buying habits. Some varieties of soup were sold out in the local market Friday, like chicken noodle preferred by children. Others were untouched, like cream of chicken and chicken broth.
If one only shopped at the local grocery one would have a different impression of the pandemic than if one only went to the garden center. Managers in the one took it seriously and protected its employees. The other has not. The environments the two companies have created tell customers more about the seriousness of the disease than the news outlets.
Sources:
1. Lloyd Grove. "Republicans Who Watch Fox News More Likely to Believe COVID-19 Falsehoods: New Poll." The Daily Beast website. 9 April 2020.
2. Nielsen ratings are proprietary. Wikipedia said KOAT (ABC) is more popular than KOB (NBC) and KRQE (CBS/Fox). [7] One knows this is dated information because it did not mention Telemundo’s KASA or cable programs. Yelp, a website that collects comments from users, places the Spanish-language KASA first. [8] This is, at best, anecdotal information that can be manipulated by the participants and thus has no scientific value.
3. Kevin Robillard. "Democratic Super PAC Is Using Memes To Bash Trump’s Coronavirus Response." Huffington Post website. 10 April 2020.
4. I mentioned the woman in the entry for March 9 posted on 28 March 2020.
5. I am not running around stores to see what shelves are empty. I might have in a less perilous time, but now I make no detours. I did notice the man in front of me at the garden center was buying two lilies on Good Friday, while the one behind me was purchasing two large arborvitae like the shrubs that line the entrance to the Santa Cruz church.
6. Cuomo was mentioned in the entry for April 10 posted on 11 April 2020.
7. Wikipedia. "KOAT-TV."
8. "The Best 10 Television Stations in Albuquerque, NM." Yelp website.
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