In the wake of the novel coronavirus, people around the globe have learned all about social distancing and its role in halting the spread of the disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in order to practice proper social distancing, you should aim to keep at least six feet away from other people and refrain from gathering in large groups.
In Germany, restaurants, bars and cafes have been opening up to the public once again after a period of lockdown, and one establishment has come up with a clever way to enable customers to socially distance.
At Cafe & Konditorei Rothe in Schwerin, Germany, staff members are providing customers with pool noodle hats in order to ensure that they stay the required six feet apart.
Check out this silly-looking, yet effective, solution in the cafe’s Facebook post from May 9:
In addition to the ingenious hats, servers at the cafe are wearing mouth and nose guards to protect both themselves and customers.
“This was the perfect method to keep customers apart — and a fun one,” Jacqueline Rothe, the cafe’s owner, told CNN. Rothe said the pool noodle hats were a suggestion from local TV company RTL, which was covering the reopening of cafes and restaurants.
“It was a perfect gag and of course it was funny, our customers were really into it,” she added. “But what it did show to us (was) how difficult it is to keep a distance of 1.5 meters.”
Now that the cafe is open, it can only serve about half as many people as usual. Rothe hopes that as restrictions continue to ease in Germany and throughout the world, they will see an uptick in business.
Cafe & Konditorei Rothe is not the only business coming up with clever ways for customers to keep their distance. The staff at Fish Tales Bar & Grill in Ocean City, Maryland is keeping people apart by using “bumper tables,” custom-built one-person tables with huge inner tubes around them.
Check it out in this video posted to Facebook by Revolution Event Design and Production, the company that designed the innovative tables:
Genius! What will they think of next?
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
