Gone

Fast Food Joint Before Plan-demic

Coffee time and breakfast in the fast food joint in town has been bordering on eerie. The dining room on the second floor is empty or near empty every day. Gone, too, are the myriad homeless loitering. Two years ago, there were days when no tables were available. Even the ordering area is sparse now, with just one line usually served by only two cashiers. Two years ago, there were four solid lines of customers.

Fast Food Joint Dining Area 9:30am

Another great haircut from the Institute of Hair Design was much appreciated. As usual, there were very few customers. Only three guys were getting haircuts in the barber section. Leo was conducting a class in the salon section, so a large group of students were gathered around. So strange. Two years ago, the place was in packed with customers, so much so that the queue was often 30 minutes or longer. Now, there’s no waiting.

The gym in town has seen an increase in new members, but the membership is down overall. Scheduled GroupX classes are about half of what was available two years ago. There are no classes at all on Wednesday now. The size of the classes appear to be 50% or less than before.

Subway® Downtown 4pm

Dinner at the Subway® in town is enjoyable because there is no crowd. There are only four tables in the whole establishment, and usually no one is sitting there. Obviously, there is no waiting in line to order. On-line orders are ready within ten minutes.

Ala Moana Center is fairly crowded. The Makai Market food court is usually packed with people. However, looks can be deceiving. The actual number of tables and seating has never been fully restored. Walking through the mall reveals that pedestrian traffic is actually just a fraction of what it was two years ago. Nearly all of the stores have fewer customers wandering through them.

Where is everyone? Almost a year has elapsed since the sickening “super-duper corona” mandates were rescinded. So, where are the office workers? Where are the locals?

Miscellany: Only a few days have passed since the procurement of the AirPods Pro 2 and the novelty has already worn off. Well, there actually has been no reason for its deployment since most streaming venues are not acceptable.