I walked into a fast food restaurant to get food. I had to yell around the plexiglass snot-guard to get the order in, and hoped it was right because I couldn't understand the cashier's muffled voice. I got the total and broke out a $20 bill.
The cashier slid a small plastic tray across the counter and asked me to put the bill into it. I did: then watched her pull the tray back, two feet, to her... where she picked the bill up and made the change. She placed my change in the tray and slid it to me.
I asked her, "how is that tray somehow disinfecting the money as it goes from my hand to yours? And if it's not, and we're handling the money the same way, why are we even using this stupid thing?" She explained that someone at CORPORATE implemented the policy. That explained everything.
Totally!
But just in case, it may very well have to do with security as much as anything else.
Limiting personal contact between employees and customers has been increasing for many years.
There may even be discounts for the insurance that the business must pay for to be in business.
People working for minimum wage are being viciously attacked by 'customers' at their places of work.
Unfortunately, if this happens to you and you retaliate in self defense or in any way, you will most likely lose the job.
On the other hand, the dumbing down of prospectives for these jobs, the promotion of 'Thug Life', affirmative action programs, along with multiple other issues, has made it almost as possible to be violated as a customer.
It is no longer possible to hire the best prospect for any job, because either that job application does not exist (no one filled it out at all, or not the right person for the job) or because the government is forcing the hire of a certain type of person.
This is one reason why we shop online, and that will yield even less jobs as time goes by.
'Go woke, go broke' is going to get us all in the end.