[Non technical track]
Inspiration
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been difficult to make stores safe for both staff members and customers. Due to the density of customers in shops and stores, social distancing is not always respected, making the risk of contamination higher for everyone. During lockdowns, multiple governments shut businesses considered non essential down and limited the number of customers a first necessity store or shop could welcome. Unfortunately massive waiting lines started appearing in front of those stores, and while social distancing is respected inside stores, it isn’t always respected in waiting lines, thus still increasing the risk of contamination and not making first necessity shops unsafe despite the measures taken.
I wanted to create a solution that could remove waiting lines and avoid overcrowding.
What it does
ZeroHour is a mobile app that looks a bit like Google Maps, but instead of calculating itineraries, the app shows all the shops and businesses a user can shop at. By clicking on a shop, the user will see if the store is at capacity or not and will be able to to enter it if not. This way, shop and business owners will know how many customers are in their stores at all time. If the store is at capacity, the user will be placed in a virtual waiting line, thus avoiding the creation of a physical waiting line, reducing risks of contamination.
While in a virtual waiting line, the app will show users where they can shop while they wait. For example, if a user wants to run errands in a supermarket but the supermarket is at capacity, the user will be able to shop elsewhere while still being in the waiting line for the supermarket. This way, the user's time is not wasted.
If this app is used widely, it could lead to a reopening of shops that were forced to stay closed during lockdowns, making businesses up and running again.
How I built it
I'm going to build it using the MERN stack.
Challenges I ran into
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
What I learned
What's next for Zero Hour
The full app remains to be built.
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