Signs of the Pandemic
I would suggest that when most people think of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, along with all of the measures taken to prevent the spread of that virus, is probably what comes to mind. The response to the advent of COVID-19, including things that we were asked to do in the name of slowing, stopping, or otherwise limiting the spread, ranged from plausible to creepy to downright laughable, from social distancing, to lockdowns, to masks, to dining bans, to one-way traffic flow, and so much more. I have already made my opinions on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic known elsewhere on this site, so the purpose of this set is to showcase the sorts of things that we saw in the world from March 2020 through the end of the year that were forced upon us in the name of COVID-19. The photographs are presented here in black and white, as a way of emphasizing that the COVID-19 pandemic was a dark period in our history, when all was not well in the world.
 Empty shelves in the meat department of a Giant Food store in McLean, Virginia, as people prepared for lockdowns in the same way that they would for an impending winter storm. |
 Interior of railcar 3243 on the Orange Line of the Washington Metro. This car would normally be full to standing room at this hour of the day, but due to a sharp drop in ridership brought on by the pandemic response, the car was empty. |
 Closed dining area at the Harris Teeter grocery store in Olney, Maryland, brought on by a recently-imposed ban on indoor dining. |
 Prepackaged foods for sale in what would normally have been a self-service food bar at the Harris Teeter grocery store in Ellicott City, Maryland. |
 Empty aisle at the Target store in Gaithersburg, Maryland that would normally be filled with paper towels. Due to panic buying following the declaration of a pandemic and advisories to stay at home, people bought out stores’ supplies of paper towels, toilet paper, bread, milk, and cleaning supplies. |
 Elyse Horvath expresses her delight in finding a roll of toilet paper for sale at a Giant Food store in North Bethesda, Maryland. |
 Signage at a rest area along Interstate 95 in Dale City, Virginia posted in response to the panic buying of paper products and cleaning supplies, urging travelers not to steal products from the restrooms. |
 Sign at a CVS store in Williamsburg, Virginia indicating purchase limits for paper products. |
 Floor marker at a Giant Food store in North Bethesda, Maryland reminding customers to practice social distancing, i.e. maintaining a six-foot distance from others. |
 Plexiglass screens, ostensibly to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 between patrons and store employees, hung from the ceiling in front of the customer service counter at a Giant Food store in Montgomery Village, Maryland. |
 One-way traffic sign in an aisle at Whole Foods Market in Ashburn, Virginia. |
 One-way traffic sign indicating the “wrong” direction of traffic flow in an aisle at Whole Foods Market in Ashburn, Virginia. |
 Aisle signage designating one-way traffic flow at a Walmart Supercenter in Martinsburg, West Virginia. |
 Signage directing customers on where to stand and how to order their coffee in front of what would have normally been a self-service coffee bar at a Wawa store in Fredericksburg, Virginia. |
 Signage at a Tractor Supply store in Charles Town, West Virginia advising customers not to touch the pen containing baby chickens, ostensibly to limit the transmission of COVID-19. |
 Sign at the entrance to a gas station on US 340 in Loudoun County, Virginia limiting store capacity in accordance with government orders ostensibly made to limit the spread of COVID-19. The ask from the store was made in the context of keeping the store open, i.e. if patrons do not follow the guidelines, the state will close the store down. |
 Gordmans store in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, closed as a “non-essential” business in the early months of the pandemic. |
 Interior of the Gordmans store in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, during a time that the store would otherwise have been open, if not for its mandated closure as a “non-essential” business in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
 Build-A-Bear Workshop store inside a Walmart Supercenter in Hampton, Virginia. While Walmart stores remained open throughout the pandemic as “essential” businesses, stores like Build-A-Bear Workshop, despite being located inside Walmart stores, were ordered closed by the government. |
 Microsoft Store at Tysons Corner Center in McLean, Virginia. All Microsoft Store locations closed at the beginning of the pandemic, and most never reopened when lockdown orders were lifted. |
 Sign announcing the pandemic-related closure of the Salvation Army thrift store in Rockville, Maryland. The store would never reopen at this location due to matters unrelated to the pandemic, resuming business in a new location down the road. |
 Sign for Taboo Gentlemen’s Club, an adult entertainment venue in Martinsburg, West Virginia in June 2020, still advertising for events that had been planned for March, but never took place due to lockdown orders that forced the establishment to close. |
 A-frame sign in the middle of Washington Street in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia advising potential visitors to the historical park that there are currently no public restroom facilities, no public parking facilities, and no trash cans. |
 Stuffed animal celebrating the graduation of the class of 2020. |
 Sign on a shelf at the Unique Thrift Store in Hillandale, Maryland advising customers not to sit on the furniture, ostensibly to prevent the spread of COVID-19. |
 Closed water fountains at a Walmart Supercenter in Martinsburg, West Virginia. |
 Signage on the soft drink fountain at a Sheetz in Leesburg, Virginia indicating that self-service beverages have been temporarily discontinued, ostensibly for the well-being of the community. |
 Sign on a tip jar at Pike Kitchen, an Asian food hall in Rockville, Maryland, characterizing tips as contactless hugs. |
 Donuts individually packaged in clamshell containers at the Shoppers Food store in Laurel, Maryland. |
 Sign at Aspen Hill Christian Church advising passers-by to keep praying and to keep their distance. |
 Bottles of hand sanitizer manufactured by Faber, a Pennsylvania-based company that normally operates as a liquor distillery. |
 Sign at a gas station in McLean, Virginia asking that patrons not apply hand sanitizer to the PIN pads at the pumps. |
 Sign on a plexiglass partition listing all of the various measures that Target has taken towards efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19, including additional cleaning, purchase limits, senior hours, and closure of certain checkout lanes. |
 Sign on the main entrance to a building advising people that the facility is closed for a COVID-related cleaning. |
 Social distancing marker on the floor of an elevator in a parking garage in Reston, Virginia. |
 Plastic wrap blocking off what is normally a self-service offering at a 7-Eleven store in White Oak, Maryland. |
 Subway restaurant at a Walmart Supercenter in Massaponax, Virginia, with all of the tables removed due to a ban on indoor dining in place at the time. |
 Temporary outdoor seating area in the parking garage at Montgomery Mall, a shopping mall in Bethesda, Maryland. |
 Food court at Montgomery Mall, a shopping mall in Bethesda, Maryland. Nearly every portable piece of furniture has been removed, and any built-in tables and seats have been blocked off. |
 Carnival-style food stand set up in the parking lot of the Southern States gas station in Frederick, Maryland. Due to the cancellation of most county fairs and other similar events in the name of COVID-19, carnival food vendors set up their stands at gas stations and other places in order to replace the revenue lost from the cancelled events. |
 Social distancing setup utilizing chairs and plexiglass screens at the point of sale in a McDonald’s restaurant in Colesville, Maryland. |
 Sign on the door of Cici’s Pizza, a buffet-style restaurant in Rockville, Maryland, announcing the location’s temporary closure on account of dining restrictions implemented in March 2020. In June 2020, the company announced that the temporary closure of this location would become permanent. |
 Sign in front of a Popeyes restaurant in Charles Town, West Virginia, after dining restrictions were relaxed, allowing indoor dining with limited capacity. |
 Mask and face shield on a mannequin at Tysons Corner Center in McLean, Virginia. |
 Sign at a Dunkin Donuts in Leesburg, Virginia, reading, “No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service.” |
 Sign reading, “Cover your nose!” in the window of O’Suzannah, a store on the downtown mall in Charlottesville, Virginia, in response to people who would cover only their mouths, and leave their noses out of their masks. |
 Sign reading, “Mask up Buttercup!” on the front door of Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, a restaurant in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, in an attempt to be cute while conveying masking requirements. |
 Sign on the entrance of Baja Bean Company in downtown Staunton, Virginia, pleading to customers to wear masks in the establishment. The ask from the restaurant was made in the context of ensuring that the facility remains open, i.e. if patrons do not wear masks and someone contracts COVID-19, the restaurant will be forced to close for two weeks. |
 Sign at the entrance to Family Barber & Beauty at Staunton Mall in Augusta County, Virginia, listing capacity restrictions as well as health and masking requirements. |
 Mask on a styrofoam mannequin head in the sporting goods department at the Walmart Supercenter in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. |
 Mask on a Tyrannosaurus Rex plush in the window of Pufferbellies, a toy store in downtown Staunton, Virginia. |
 Boxes of disposable face masks for sale at the Target store in Germantown, Maryland. |
 Reusable face masks for children on a rack at the Shoppers Food store in Laurel, Maryland. |
 Discarded face mask on a sidewalk outside of the Bass Pro Shops store at the Arundel Mills shopping mall in Hanover, Maryland. |
 Discarded latex glove on a bench at West Falls Church station in Fairfax County, Virginia. |
 Mask and glove disposal bin outside of the Lowe’s store in Gaithersburg, Maryland, presumably placed to limit the amount of litter in the parking lot caused by the irresponsible disposal of masks and gloves. |
 Sign on a table in a seating area at the Fashion Square mall in Charlottesville, Virginia, asking that furniture not be moved in order to maintain social distancing. |
 Sign on the gate at the True Religion store at the Arundel Mills shopping mall in Hanover, Maryland, preventing customers from coming in as a method of enforcing capacity limitations, ostensibly to prevent the spread of COVID-19. |
 Queuing area in front of the Bath & Body Works store at the Fashion Square shopping mall in Charlottesville, Virginia. If the store was at its COVID-limited capacity, potential customers were expected to wait in this queuing area in a socially-distanced manner until a customer left the store before being allowed inside. |
 Photo booth at the York Galleria shopping mall in York, Pennsylvania, blocked off in an apparent effort to limit the spread of COVID-19. |
 Children’s ride wrapped in plastic with a sign indicating its temporary closure, ostensibly to prevent the spread of COVID-19, at the Arundel Mills shopping mall in Hanover, Maryland. |
 Coin-operated candy machines, wrapped in plastic to prevent usage, presumably in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19. |
 A row massage chairs, closed in an apparent effort to limit the transmission of COVID-19, at the Arundel Mills shopping mall in Hanover, Maryland. |
 Social distancing marker on a bench at White Marsh Mall in Nottingham, Maryland, indicating that only two people are allowed to sit on the bench at one time. |
 Mall entrance at the Best Buy store at the Arundel Mills shopping mall in Hanover, Maryland. In an effort, ostensibly for the safety of the mall, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Best Buy closed and blocked off its mall entrance, allowing customers to enter and exit only via the exterior doors. |
 Store closing signage at the Gordmans store in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. The government-mandated closures, which shuttered all of the company’s stores, caused parent company Stage Stores to run out of money and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ultimately go into liquidation while lockdown orders were still in effect. |
 Electronic highway sign displaying a message discouraging travel and encouraging mask wearing, ostensibly to prevent the spread of COVID-19, on Maryland Route 200 westbound in Prince George’s County, Maryland. |
 Pallet of “Black Friday” merchandise at the Walmart Supercenter in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. In an effort to promote social distancing, Walmart eschewed its traditional Black Friday sale in favor of spreading sales out over the entire month. |
 Empty rack that normally contained toilet paper and paper towels at the Walmart Supercenter in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. When a possible “second wave” of COVID-19 began to be discussed in the news in late 2020, consumers feared another round of lockdowns and began panic buying, once again cleaning the stores out of their supplies of paper products and cleaning supplies. |