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Business Fighting Flu With Wash Station

Owner Hoping To Start Trend

POSTED: 5:09 pm EDT April 30, 2009
UPDATED: 8:14 pm EDT April 30, 2009

Concern over H1N1 influenza A has at least one business owner in Connecticut taking action.

The business owner said she's concerned that flu worries will keep customers away.

Upon entering Magic Intent in Rockville, customers are asked to wash their hands. It became a rule at the boutique after owner J.J. Lancey said she heard Vernon schools were closing down because of a suspected case of H1N1 flu.

"I thought, 'My business is sunk. This could go on for a month,'" she said. "People are just going out less and less because they won't be going out in public, so I had to find some solution so they would feel safe coming to me."

Lancey said she's providing a makeshift hand-washing station and demanding that everyone coming in use one of the antibacterial products before entering the store.

"They look at me and say, 'You're kidding, right?' But I say, 'No, I really need you to do that, and I need everyone to do that to protect you as well as myself,'" she said.

Lancey said the supplies to set up a hand-washing station are inexpensive. She said she hopes other shops will follow suit.

"I want us all to act scared and take precautions so it doesn't get bad and turn into the bubonic plague," she said.

A father shopping in the store said he thinks it's a great idea.

"I'm just concerned because you don't know how it's going to affect certain people," Matthew Poucher said. "One bug might get somebody and then it might kill another person, so yeah, I think it's great.

Lancey said she hopes her store will stay open, her customers will keep shopping and that she'll be credited with starting a hand-cleaning trend.


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