Japanese 7/11 Draws Praise for Its Simple & Clever Method of Tackling COVID-19
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This Japanese convenience store is helping people avoid touching germy door handles with one simple fix.
Are refrigerator doors spreading COVID-19 infection?
"I don't want to touch the refrigerator door handle, it's probably covered in coronavirus germs."
Probably a common sentiment these days, but if you hear that and you work in a convenience store, what can you do to solve the problem? Well, like so many creative thinkers these days, the staff at this 7/11 in Fukuoka had a brilliant idea, sure to please the many worried customers.
Take one look at these newly reinvented refrigerator doors. Can you tell how to open them? The secret is… you can use your feet! Keep your hands clean and virus-free!
Dreamed up by the 7/11 staff, this handy little refrigerator door handle is made just for feet. The simple design is fashioned out of a U-shaped aluminum plate, and fastened to the door with just a strip of double-sided tape. When the idea was first brought to the shop's owner, he admitted he wasn't sure if it would work out. Opening a door with his feet as a child would have gotten him scolded, he said. It just didn't seem like good manners. But the merits of the simple plan quickly became clear.
Not only did actual customers tell him how pleased they were with the system, but Twitter users saw photos and immediately chimed in with their support, making comments like "this might seem like bad manners, but it's clearly effective against spreading coronavirus." Calls from companies around the country started coming in, with other convenience stores asking about instituting a similar system, and even a manufacturer in Nagoya asking how they'd done it.
While it's certainly a difficult time for Japan (and the rest of the world), every day we see new ways that the hardship is inspiring creativity. Everything from hands-free refrigerator door handles in convenience stores, to a new anti-coronavirus mascot in the shape of a three-legged bird mermaid! We can only hope that the COVID-19 outbreak ends quickly, but in the meantime, let us know if you see any other coronavirus creativity on the Japankuru twitter, instagram, and facebook.
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NAME:7/11 Japan
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