Essential?
 

N.J.'s 500 new-car dealers think they’re essential. Will the governor agree, or shut them down?

Copy and paste into your search engine of choice. It’s an article in today’s NJ Star Ledger. Some interesting points of view?

Being a 35+ year MB dealership guy I have conflicting thoughts.......

Sales might not be essential, but the service department might be.

If they stay open, how many sales are going to happen anyways?

Service should stay open but I suspect distribution warehouses might not, so they wont have parts.

According to the article, the sales issue seems to center around end-of-lease vehicles that need to be replaced, especially those owned by doctors, first responders, etc. I’m sure the manufacturers could be compelled to extend leases for a few months but we’ll see what happens.

As far as Service Departments are concerned, finding seat/steering wheel covers, and gloves is becoming an issue. Not that it matters though, business is so slow it may not matter.

NJ Gov. Murphy is scheduled to make an announcement today at 1PM.

As per Gov. Murphy, Service Dept. is essential, Sales Dept. is not.

On a similar note, has anyone here lost their job? Hours cut? Must work from home? Other employment disruptions?

Job Loss
 

I checked in with my ex wife and she says no job, stuck @ home with no $ .

I's think the service and parts departments are essential to most people, we're outliers here who like to tinker .

You neglected to give anything to cut and paste .

First sentence of my first post should link you to the story. Sorry, but I’m getting used to my I pad pro. My old PC was easier to cut/paste.......

Word here in Cal is that home construction is exempt, large commercial jobs are not. Plumbing/electrical is still on, I can probably find enough of that to get by.

Not sure if it makes much difference, but I'm wearing nitrile gloves into people's houses and trying hard not to touch my face until I take them off and wash my hands. Luckily I had several boxes on hand. Will likely start wearing my plumber's lightweight respirator with pancake cartridges. My hope, my guess is that any airborne virus would get buried in the carbon. Will also make it very unlikely that I would accidentally spew spittle while talking in such a way that it would project so it protects me as well as others.

Being Prudent
 

There you go .

A friend of mine is also a plumber / handyman who's been busy like you .

Taking basic precautions is what you should do .

I'm told that licking the door knobs is still O.K., just don't touch them with your fingers :rolleyes: .

what I have seen the hang time in air is an hour at most. after that it is all surface life.

An hour would be long enough. So far I have been poo-pooing mask wearing but maybe I should rethink that. Even if I caught it and pulled through half way quickly would still be a major drag.

I closely personally know 3 people who just lost their jobs this week. They all rely on in person interaction. I just closed 4 positions I was actively hiring for in order to pad the budget and prepare for the worst for 2020. My sales pipeline might be on pause? I have no idea.

We are in for rough times, for sure. Fortunately for us, we are retired.

My wife and I are uncertain whether to have our cleaning lady come on Tuesday, but we decided to pay her one way or the other. With club membership on hold, no eating out, no shopping, etc., our spending is way down.

I would bar the door, leave the cash outside. Why risk it?