6 feet away

We're seeing this more and more. What strikes me about it is that although this is a recommendation by the CDC, it seems to have become something of a rule. I look at it more of a show of "following the rules" than anything.
For most places I shop, there isn't any way to maintain 6 ft from people. Typical supermarket aisles are lucky if they're 6 ft wide, so to try to be literal about 6 ft, you would end up playing some sort of chess game, waiting for someone else to move. Then everyone's shopping takes longer, the store fills up, then they're likely to invoke some control on the number of people in the store. So your shopping lasts longer, which translates into longer potential exposure to whatever is floating around out there.
I think there is reason to believe there is at best quasi-science which led to this 6 ft suggestion. Presumably it's based on studies showing how far particles can travel when someone coughs or sneezes, and then someone at CDC threw a dart and came up with this 6 ft recommendation. My experience since this whole distancing began is that I have yet to see anyone sneeze or cough while I was shopping. If I did go into some store faced with such behavior, I would probably turn around and leave.
As far as I can tell, there isn't going to be any way to assess all of these precautions we're taking after the fact. What we're likely to be left with is someone's assessment that "obviously, we needed to do all these things." And so next time we go through the same arbitrary rules. Curiously, we put up with flu every year with only some general suggestions about how to avoid it, then leave up the decisions to us individuals.