‘You wish that people would be adults.’ Businesses walk fine line with mask enforcement
The battle over wearing face masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19 has left grocery and retail workers to confront a health and science issue that has turned political, leaving corporate entities skittish of direct confrontations that could become viral videos on social media.
More than a month after Washington state mandated that businesses turn away customers who refuse to wear a face covering, workers and customers have at times seen a different reality play out.
While state officials say they are seeing a gradual turnaround with higher compliance, data collected by the state and local health department, along with law enforcement records, show Pierce County still has a ways to go toward total compliance.
A hands-off approach taken to cope with mask requirements ultimately comes at the expense of the entire community, health experts say.
“You wish that people would be adults about it and do what they’re supposed to do, but people, for whatever reason, sometimes choose not to. And that puts the rest of us in a difficult situation,” said Dr. Anthony Chen, director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, in a recent interview with The News Tribune.
Requirement and real life
Gov. Jay Inslee in early July mandated that customers not wearing masks be refused service at businesses.
“This is not an optional plan for businesses,” Inslee said at the time. “This is a legal requirement.”
Since Phase 2 launched in Pierce County in early June, 433 complaints against grocery stores in the county have been filed with the state. That’s more than 40 percent of complaints filed against all businesses in the county for COVID-19 safety risks in the same time frame.
“Most complaints identify businesses that aren’t enforcing the mask mandate, whether allowing customers to shop without masks on or employees not wearing masks,” said Karina Shagren, communications director for the Washington Military Department. “We’ve also received complaints about signs not being posted visibly.”
The department is helping to oversee and manage the state’s response to COVID-19 via its Emergency Management Department.
Complaints sent in via the state’s coronavirus response website are distributed to various departments to check and ultimately decide next steps in enforcement. Those include the Department of Health, Labor & Industries, Department of Licensing and the Liquor and Cannabis Board.
Brian Haight with the Division of Occupational Safety and Health oversees the contacts between L&I and larger companies that are the subject of mask-related complaints.
Haight told The News Tribune on Tuesday that while the volume of complaints has in general gone down, his workers are still stretched thin investigating potential violations, including for mask enforcement.
“I think every one of the large (retailers), it’s just fair to assume that they’re going to see complaints. We’ve gotten data back from some of the major corporate retailers, because we wanted to kind of correlate what we were seeing complaint-wise to the amount of traffic that their stores are seeing in Washington ... they generally are getting a complaint in a range of one to every 60,000 all the way up to one in every 120,000 customers.
“But they all will see some.”
He added, “When you get into an area where there has been an outbreak of COVID in the community, you’ll tend to see a large uptick in the amount of complaints in the area.”
L&I told The News Tribune that it is performing about 200 site visits statewide every day to check on possible violations. Some of those visits are in response to complaints, and others are proactive, according to Tim Church, L&I’s director of communications.
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, in its own tally, observed people at more than 20 locations across Pierce County on July 31 and Aug. 1.
The department reported Monday that while overall, 77 percent of those observed wore a mask in some fashion, only 66 percent wore a mask with full coverage (nose, mouth, chin).
Mask use was similar inside Tacoma (76 percent) and elsewhere in Pierce County (78 percent).
“That’s not good enough,” according to a health department blog post reporting the results, authored by Cindan Gizzi of the department’s data team.
According to the results: “Mask use varied quite a bit by location. It was high at farmer’s markets (96 percent) and near drugstores (93 percent) and low near bars/taverns (63 percent) and at parks/beaches (40 percent). The degree of coverage was also much lower at parks/beaches and near bars/taverns; only 40 percent of observed individuals covered their nose, mouth and chin at those locations compared to 78 percent at all other locations combined. Full coverage at transit stations was also lower than average (51 percent).”
“We invested this time because research shows masks can decrease the spread of COVID-19. Studies, including from New York City and Washington’s Yakima County, provide evidence masks work,” the blog post noted.
The department plans to do similar spot surveys in the future.
The cops have been called
Law enforcement also has been called on occasion to help retailers and businesses deal with noncompliant customers.
The Tacoma Police Department has responded to a least eight calls since the mandate went into effect, department spokeswoman Wendy Haddow said. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has taken two calls, one in the Parkland area, the other in the Puyallup area, both involving patrons upset with having to wear masks.
The businesses reporting incidents ran the spectrum: hardware, convenience and auto parts stores, a vehicle licensing office, a smoke shop, a drugstore, a pizza vendor, a coffee shop and a pub/bar.
In one instance, a customer was wearing a mask and grew upset when the store couldn’t make change for a large bill. The customer allegedly lifted his mask, coughed on a keypad, and left after police were called.
In most of the cases, individuals reportedly refused to wear a mask and refused to leave, in one case when it involved picking up a prescription.
Law enforcement emphasizes education in most circumstances on mask calls, according to Haddow.
But an arrest for trespassing could be the end result if the customer has been asked to leave and refuses. Escalation into a confrontation that leads to violence can lead to further charges.
In all cases logged so far by the county and TPD, the alleged offenders left the scene before law enforcement arrived.
Walmart
The Rev. Kelly Hallock told The News Tribune via email that during a recent trip to the Lakewood Walmart she saw at least one customer go in without a mask and several employees not wearing masks properly.
“Almost every single employee who was not a cashier ... was wearing it anywhere from below their nose to hanging on to their bottom lip to all the way tucked under their chin.“
“Because I am on multiple medications for fibromyalgia, allergies, etc., I do not have a lot of confidence in my immune system, and so left as quickly as I could, skipping purchases that I had planned to make when I didn’t feel I could safely get to products where their staff were standing.”
Hallock shared with The News Tribune a response she received from Walmart.
“Please know that we are working hard to reinforce our policies with both our customers and associates. Our associates are required to use their own mask or use one provided to them at the start of their shift, after going through a health screen and temperature check,” the company wrote. “We understand this is a simple step everyone can take for their safety and the safety of others, so we will continue to communicate the importance of wearing a mask and the proper way to use them.”
The retailer told The News Tribune via email that it relies on health ambassadors to help enforce the mask requirement.
Walmart started requiring all shoppers to wear a face covering nationwide July 20 in an attempt to capture their stores not already under state-mandated requirements.
According to the retailer in a July 15 news release, the ambassadors “will work with customers who show up at a store without a face covering to try and find a solution. We are currently considering different solutions for customers.”
Charles Crowson, Walmart senior manager of corporate communications, told The News Tribune on Tuesday that de-escalation and education is where Walmart is focusing its efforts, with ambassadors trained in both.
“It is something that’s on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “What we’re trying to do with our ambassadors is reduce as much friction as possible on the front end so .... our associates aren’t faced with potentially volatile situations. And that is a balancing act. That is a very, very, very tight balancing act, because there are a number of people who feel very strongly about the mask policies and the requirements to wear them, even before we made it mandatory.”
That balancing act for Walmart is to avoid viral video or physical confrontations with store workers or having to involve law enforcement while still finding ways to comply.
Crowson noted the vast majority of customers are compliant.
“If we can get to a point of compliance to where someone may say, ‘OK, well I’ve got a neck gaiter,’ well, wear that. You know, finding a place where the customer is comfortable, as well as adhering to the mask mandate, that’s where we’re trying to get our customers — trying to get everyone with as little friction toward the floor associates as possible,” he said. “By and large, our customers are both compliant with the mandate, and grateful ... we get emails and notes of gratitude from customers thanking us for doing this.”
Fred Meyer
Retailer Fred Meyer took a similar posture in trying to find common ground with customers. On July 22, parent company Kroger started requiring all customers to wear facial coverings, not just Washington sites.
An internal store document shared with The News Tribune by a Tacoma store employee advises to let customers pass if they cite a medical exemption, or if the customer “starts to escalate verbally or physically.”
“Safety is our top priority,” it adds.
Questions from customers about other customers or employees not wearing masks because of a medical condition “should be handled cautiously so as not to violate any privacy law.”
The retailer, in response to questions from The News Tribune, said in a statement: “We respect and acknowledge that some customers, due to medical reasons, may not be able to wear a mask. We encourage those customers to consider an alternative option like a face shield or facial covering. If they’re unable to wear a mask or an alternative design, we request that they use our ecommerce services like pickup or delivery. To support all households during the COVID-19 pandemic, our grocery pickup service remains free.”
No further details were made available regarding customers simply refusing to comply.
Police were called to the Fred Meyer Tumwater store July 16 when a man allegedly pointed a gun at another shopper after the customer asked him to put on a mask.
Haight said the state has talked to Fred Meyer representatives, and while he could not recall the specifics, noted that their policies are in line with how they handle “any other kind of customer issue.”
Safeway
Safeway’s policy follows what Haight described as an enforcement path that other retailers have followed.
Tairsa Cate Worman, public affairs manager for Safeway, said in an emailed response to The News Tribune:
“It is our policy in Washington for store directors or persons in charge to greet the customers who are not wearing masks and inform them of the company requirement that all customers are required to wear a face mask/covering in the store. The customer will be offered a free mask or be directed to where face coverings are for sale.
“If the customer refuses the face mask, we will inquire whether a medical condition prevents them from wearing one. If they do not claim a medical condition and continue to refuse to wear a face covering, we will offer to shop on their behalf, as well as remind them of home delivery and Drive Up and Go options.
“If a customer continues to refuse to wear a mask, they will be asked to leave the store, and we will cease providing them service. If required by local ordinance, the store director will also contact local law enforcement and meet other legal requirements, if any.“
Cultural shift
The state Department of Health, in a news release accompanying its statewide COVID-19 situation report released Aug. 7, noted: “Any flattening in new cases appears to be due to changes in behavior, like vigilant use of face coverings and keeping physical distance, rather than changes to people’s mobility.”
That same report also noted, “In Pierce County, rapidly rising cases across groups with hospitalizations approaching late-March levels raises serious cause for concern.”
Chen, who leads the local health department, said he understands workers’ frustrations in struggling with mask enforcement.
“We don’t want employees to have to put their lives on the line to try to ask someone to do something that not only is the law but it’s just total common sense,” he said.
Chen points to a once-famous COVID-19 hot spot in the state for inspiration.
“Yakima was one of the few that got the requirement to wear masks in businesses, and then subsequently (Inslee] did extend that statewide. But that was met with very high uptake. I mean I’ve heard reports that when they do surveys, it’s like over 90 percent of people were wearing face masks. So that’s the ideal situation where people understand this. It’s their responsibility to be part of the solution,” he said.
Haight says change takes time.
“It takes time for a culture shift where everybody is accepting everything,” Haight said Tuesday. “I think that stores are doing what they can for the most part. I think that the larger stores, the chain stores, for the most part, universally have taken steps to try to fall in line with this as much as possible.
“I think some of the smaller retailers out there, maybe some of them were right on top of this thing, some of them maybe take a little longer to get things figured out and come into line. Some of it is on us to reach out to those people and get enough education there on what it is that they need to do. We’re working very hard to get that part accomplished.
“The rest of it is just a cultural mindset for people, but when it becomes an accepted practice, then it’s going to be an easy thing to maintain at that point.”
That point may be growing closer. On Wednesday, state Secretary of Health John Wiesman noted in the weekly briefing with reporters that his department was starting to see positive trends in the data.
“We have a great deal of work obviously left to do, but we are showing some success in our efforts such as increasing the use of face coverings and seeing an encouraging decline in daily new case counts.”
To report a Safe Start violation, go to coronavirus.wa.gov/.
