KERRVILLE, Texas: When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would lift the Covid-19 state mask mandate, he left the companies in charge of establishing and implementing their own policies. HEB, a beloved Texas supermarket and advocate during past crises in the state, disowned.
The company, which had experienced a series of altercations in its aisles over mask policy, initially said it would urge customers to wear masks, but would require employees to do so. A few days later, after some shoppers and workers criticized the supermarket, the chain clarified its stance. I would leave signs and continue to make ads indicating that masks are needed and offered to buyers without masks. HEB also said it would continue its policy of not scaling situations where a customer refuses to wear a mask.
The change in HE-B’s message reflects the balance many Texas companies now face after the state commissioned them to establish and implement the mask policy. Since the mandate was lifted on March 10, some HEB employees and customers say they have noticed more customers without masks buying the aisles.
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After the chain’s initial statement urging customers to wear masks, HEB president Scott McClelland told the Houston Chronicle that the governor’s move removed stores from the “backstop” that the threat of a fine provided, which he said could cause more people to enter. shops without masks. McClelland said he had to weigh the physical well-being of customers and employees, given the frequent disputes over masks in stores, even when state mask rules were in place.
“Of all the issues we’ve dealt with over the past year, masks are the most polarizing,” McClelland told The Chronicle. “Partly because they were used as a political weapon and partly because, frankly, people don’t like to wear masks.”
HEB said it expects shoppers to continue wearing masks in its stores and to increase security at many of its locations. “The completion of the mask ordinances puts real pressure on retailers to implement an emotional policy for many and we will not ask our partners to put themselves in danger,” the company said in a written statement.
Governor Greg Abbott, here in February, terminated the mask’s mandate on March 10th.
Photo:
Bob Daemmrich / Zuma Press
Several HEB employees said they noticed an increase in the number of people not wearing masks since Mr Abbott’s announcement. An employee of a HEB in the Bryan-College Station area of East Texas said during the term he would notice a buyer without masks perhaps every hour or so. Last week, as an experiment, he started doing a count of people not wearing masks during one of his shifts. In about five hours, he saw 38 people without masks.
The employee said he would like HEB to take a stronger stance in favor of masks, although he said he understood it would be difficult to implement. “They don’t want chaos and fights in their stores,” he said. “I don’t think it’s an easy choice, by any means … but it’s the right one.”
At a HEB in Kerrville, a small town in downtown Hill Country, Texas, employees didn’t seem to bother the few maskless shoppers who showed up on Friday morning last week.
“I don’t like people telling me what to do,” one male customer said. “Let me make that decision.”
Some of the largest retail chains, theaters, hotels and restaurants said they planned to continue requiring masks in Texas, Mississippi and other states that lifted the restrictions.
Many local business owners encouraged policy change, especially in heavily affected sectors such as restaurants that are desperate to reclaim customers. In a March survey of more than 700 restaurants conducted by the Texas Restaurant Association, 44% of respondents said they would no longer require facial coverage from their customers.
Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s chief infectious disease physician, says it is risky to curb public health measures, as coronavirus cases could reach the plateau and then recover.
HEB, founded by the Butt family in 1905, has more than 400 stores statewide. The chain was praised for its preparedness for the pandemic when Covid-19 first appeared, was a major competitor in the vaccine launch and is regularly praised for its response to hurricanes and other disasters.
Katy Bravenec, 37, said she lost faith in HEB after the initial statement and no longer plans to shop at her San Antonio store. Ms Bravenec said she scanned three HE-Bs after the mask warrant was lifted to see if customers were allowed to buy without a mask. After seeing a handful of customers not wearing masks at every store, he said he would take his business to a nearby Joe merchant.
“It didn’t fit with his public image,” he said. “You can’t pretend to be a strong partner in the community and then lift the mandate of the mask when it’s not just for its workers but for our community. It just seemed hypocritical.”
Wendy Wright buys from a Houston HEB, but said she would consider moving to the next Kroger Co.
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shop if you notice an increase in buyers without masks. Ms Wright said she has been to HEB twice since the Republican governor terminated the mask’s term. On the first trip, he estimated that about 10% of shoppers did not have masks. He gave the store one more chance this past Sunday and didn’t notice any customers or employees without masks.
“I will take it week by week and if it seems a safe place to buy I will stay. If they let the masks slip, I’ll go to another store, ”he said. “I’m 60, I don’t want to play with Covid.”
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“The more we talked about it, it didn’t seem right to apply it because it’s not a law.”
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Other Texas companies have struggled about whether and how to respond to lifting restrictions.
In Pearland, Good Vibes Burgers & Brews restaurant told local media when the warrant was lifted that it nullified all mask requirements. A day later, on March 11, the company said all employees would wear masks and distribute the disposable masks to any customer who wanted them. A company spokeswoman declined to comment.
Augie Bering V, owner of Bering hardware stores in Houston, said it was a relief when Texas established a mask warrant during the summer. Since then, he said, few people without masks have visited stores. Lifting the order of masks put employers in a difficult position, he said.
“They put us in the middle,” he said. “Some of the conversations we had were,‘ We have to require it in order to be able to enforce it. ’But the more we talked about it, it didn’t seem right to apply it because it’s not a law. People could see it as a political thing ”.
Almost everyone at Kerrville HEB was masked on Friday morning last week, two days after the term was revoked. The decisions are broadly regional, said Rachel Townsend, 24, a mental health worker. She notices that there are far more people wearing masks in Kerrville, which has a high retired population, than in her hometown, Uvalde, South Texas.
In Fort Worth, Tatiana Miller, 39, said she sympathizes with Texas companies caught up in the mask debate. Ms Miller said companies have no way to implement a mask policy, with or without a mandate. He said he agreed with the policy of urging customers to wear a face mask, but that he did not force entry.
“Jeans like their choice. It would be easier for people to decide what to do or not to do, ”he said. “It seems to me that companies can’t win.”
Write to Patrick Thomas to [email protected] and Elizabeth Findell to [email protected]
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