Schnucks, other retailers getting serious about mask requirements in Illinois stores
Many regional and national retailers have been asking customers to wear face coverings to slow the spread of the coronavirus for months, but levels of cooperation and enforcement have been all over the map.
Now some companies are getting serious and doing more than just posting signs at entrances.
St. Louis-based Schnucks supermarkets announced Thursday that all of its stores in five states will require customers to wear masks or other face coverings, not just those in jurisdictions such as Illinois that mandate them.
“It’s in the best interest of the safety of our customers and teammates,” said company spokesman Paul Simon. “Given the escalating number of positive COVID-19 cases in the regions we serve, we think this is the right move to make.”
Schnucks operates nearly 100 stores in Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa and Indiana.
The company has been asking customers at its Illinois stores to wear face coverings for months because of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s directives, Simon said. But now employees will be stationed at store entrances and, when they see customers walking in without face coverings, they will offer complimentary ones for them to put on.
What hasn’t changed? Enforcement is tricky.
“We do not want (employees) to get in a physical or verbal altercation,” Simon said. “And because of that, we have empowered them to contact local authorities to report any violations at our stores.”
Sister companies Walmart and Sam’s Clubs announced on Wednesday that they also will require customers to wear face coverings.
Each store will close all of its entrances except one, starting Monday, according to a press release. “Health ambassadors” stationed at the entrance will remind those without face coverings that they should be wearing them.
Other companies that have made similar announcements on mask requirements include Costco and Apple (beginning in May), Dollar Tree (July 8), Starbucks and Best Buy (July 15), Kohl’s and CVS (July 20), Kroger (July 22) and Target (Aug. 1).
Goodwill stores in the St. Louis region, including Illinois, have employees stationed at store entrances to keep people from entering without face coverings. Other companies “require” masks but don’t ask customers to leave if they take them off while shopping.
The national Starbucks website puts it this way:
“At select locations where a local government mandate is not in place, customers that may not be wearing a facial covering will have various options to order their Starbucks, including ordering at the drive-thru, curbside pickup through the Starbucks app or placing an order for delivery through Starbucks Delivers.”
Some retailers have referred to the growing number of states and other jurisdictions that are mandating that people wear face coverings in public as a reason for their decisions to strengthen in-store policies. It’s a matter of consistency.
Walmart noted that about 65 percent of Walmart and Sam’s Club stores operate in places where face coverings are mandated in public.
“As the number of confirmed cases has spiked in communities across the country recently, so too have the number and types of face covering mandates being implemented,” it stated.
