I’m mostly talking about the partial lockdowns where only specific categories of businesses or employees were considered essential. Many of these designations were arbitrary at best and politically motivated at worst.
1) Lacking a nationalized infrastructure to deliver food, utilities, and healthcare, some businesses are clearly essential
2) It is impossible to have unanimous consensus on what "essential" means
3) In some areas, businesses are not tightly scoped - the primary source of food for a neighborhood may also sell non-food items.
4) Even the definition of "essential" cannot be tightly defined - are manufacturers of spare infrastructure components essential? What about their suppliers? What about the contractor who refills their coffee machine?
Decisions had to be made, and administrators largely made the best decisions with the information available to them.