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Comment by dlandis | Hacker News Reader

Does that data indicate that seated reservations are only presently down 56% YOY in the US ? That's pretty discouraging if that many people are still ignoring standard guidance.

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There are a lot of people who don't really understand the importance of social distancing yet.

When we told in-laws that the state (MA) had just banned dining-in starting the next day their response was "wow good thing we went out for dinner tonight then."

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had to question the intelligence of family and acquaintances whom I used to hold in high regard. I've been asked to participate in "measle parties" with my kids. And to do a community stationary bike ride a the local gym to support them.

The cognitive dissonance is real, it’s a sort of inverse ‘tragedy of the commons’, or akin to years of climate change behavior played out in days.

Movie theater box office numbers[1] are another good indication of the same thing. You see a similar large drop-off, but still a sizable amount of people gathering in these businesses. This is why it is crucial for the government to force these businesses to close. As long as they are open, people will gather in them.

[1] - https://www.boxofficemojo.com/date/?ref_=bo_nb_wey_secondary...

Just saw an email from Cinemark (big theater chain) that they're closing starting tomorrow.

A friend of mine spoke to someone today who was not aware of COVID-19 at all. Literally had not heard the term.

Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1053/

Probably don’t even need to click to know which one it is...

In my state it's over 70%

All the drive-throughs only had 1-2 cars in them today at lunch, instead of the line being wrapped around the building like usual.

Is it even possible to get covid-19 waiting in your car for auto-food?

It's possible to get it from the poor kid who is cutting lettuce in the drive-through's kitchen.

Can someone give money to OpenTable to support restaurant in difficult time?

I wanted to help a couple of local business but there’s nothing on-line: Google Maps says that they are open (and my city in in lock-down).

If your favorite places offer gift certificates, that's a good way to support them. You're basically giving them an interest-free loan for the amount that you purchase. I've already done this with a bunch of my favorite local restaurants.

Sadly OT no longer has their old gift card program, which was my baby when I worked there :<

OpenTable is not a charity, it’s a reservation service restaurants pay for.

If OT wanted to be charitable, they could lower their service fee, but nobody’s making any reservations right now anyway.

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