Grand Central

     Before Covid Grand Central was always booming with people, LIRR workers, train conductors, business people, tourists and more. Stepping into Grand Central now is a very different vibe then before. There are no longer crowds of people. The dining hall is empty with many iconic stores that used to be there before closed, the infamous clock tower no longer has groups of people trying to take photos in front of it. The apple store is empty, the ticket holders seem bored, and the homelessness issue seems to have grow immensely. 

    One of the biggest shocks for me was that the transit store was closed. When I was a kid I would go to the transit store every Christmas with my family. My eyes would light up at the toy trains dusted in fake snow, and my brother and I would push through the crowds to get the best looking spot. It was really hard to see the store closed, it honestly made me emotional.  

Another big change that I noticed was how many stores closed in the dining hall. The dining hall used to be one of the most lively places in Grand Central, there were lines at almost every store and it was almost impossible to find a seat to eat your food at. To our shock most of the stores were closed, including shake shack which was a huge shock. To eat your food you had to stand at one designated area that a security worker stood in front of.

One of the only things that felt the same was the grocery store section that has things like, a fish market, murray's cheese, fresh produce and more. Not a single store in the market had closed and it lots of people were inside buying produce. 

One cool thing we saw in Grand Central was a mask vending machine by the train tracks. It had masks, hand sanitizer, and chargers. We had never seen a mask vending machine before, so it was cool to see interesting things people are doing in regards to covid.

Overall, Grand Central seems to have changed the most out of the places we have visited so far. Hopefully things will open back up inside and it can go back to the iconic place it used to be.