Grocery stores starting to require masks for employees

More and more grocery stores are asking their employees to wear masks as a strategy to avoid transmitting the novel coronavirus, which is spread through droplets in an infected person's cough and sneeze.

Some grocery chains, such as Hy-Vee and Walmart, made the change recently in the latter half of April. Everybody's Whole Foods in Fairfield implemented a mandatory mask policy in early April, and its policy applies not just to employees but to customers, too. A sign just inside the entrance tells visitors that a mask is necessary 'beyond this point.”

'I want to make sure we're helping everyone stay safe,” said Everybody's owner Nathan Gamet. 'A lot of people are coming through here every day. We want customers and employees to feel as safe as possible.”

Gamet has heard from his employees that the masks are uncomfortable.

'Nobody enjoys wearing them,” he remarked.

Nevertheless, he feels it was the right decision to require everyone in the store to wear masks.

'For some customers, it has been an adjustment,” Gamet admits.

Everybody's experimented by recommending its customers wear masks for a week just before making them mandatory. Gamet said he got some pushback from customers who didn't like needing a mask to shop in his store, so he posted on Facebook how the public can make its own masks at home. The store has also begun selling them.

'We're trying to make it as easy as possible on people,” Gamet said.

Gamet said following the rule is not hard since the store merely requires customers cover their face, which could be with a scarf, a bandana or handkerchief.

'I see a lot of handkerchiefs and scarves,” Gamet said. 'That's in line with the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommendations.”

Josh Althoff, assistant manager of Fareway in Washington, said his store is not requiring anyone - whether customer or employee - to wear a mask. However, it has posted signs indicating that wearing masks is highly encouraged.

'A large number of our employees have started to wear them, I'd say over half of our employees,” Althoff said. 'We have masks available for use, but we can't force an individual to wear them.”

Though Fareway has not begun to require masks, it has taken a number of other steps to ensure customer safety, such as asking families to limit themselves to one person in the store at a time, and having employees sanitize the carts on a regular basis. Althoff said Fareway was also one of the first locations in the Midwest to reserve the first hour of the business day - from 8-9 a.m. - for the elderly, high-risk patients, and essential workers, so that they could shop separately from the rest of the population.

Althoff said the store has signs telling customers to stay six feet apart. It has even placed stickers on its checkout line floor showing customers how far six feet is, to help them comply.

'Every half-hour, we clean all the carts,” Althoff said. 'We clean the checkout stands after each customer, wiping down the counter, keypad and any commonly touched areas. We want to make sure that everything customers touch is as clean as possible.”

Althoff said there was a rush to purchase paper towels and toilet paper during the early weeks of the quarantine, and Fareway responded by limiting how many packages each customer could buy. He said the supply of both those items has increased to where Fareway has eased those purchasing restrictions.

Gamet said the virus has impacted his orders, with supply trucks carrying only about half to one-third of the orders he has put in.

'Suppliers are still struggling to catch up,” Gamet said. 'My understanding is that it's because the demand has been so high.”

Gamet said that, with so many people out of work, his store plans to increase its donations of food to local food banks.

Hy-Vee's director of public relations Christina Gayman said her company just released a new policy April 27 that made wearing masks mandatory for all employees while on the job. This comes after a period of a few weeks in which the company 'strongly encouraged” mask usage.

'We have supplied everyone cloth masks, but they're welcome to wear their own facial covering,” Gayman said.

The company has issued a mask to each of its 80,000 employees, which covers 264 stores in eight states. Thus far, the company is not requiring customers to wear a mask. Gayman noted that in Illinois, where Hy-Vee has nearly 20 stores, a new law will take effect May 1 requiring all residents to wear a mask when in a public setting.

Walmart issued a news release on April 17 indicating that it had implemented a policy requiring all employees to wear a mask or other face covering while at work. The policy applies to the company's stores, clubs, distribution and fulfillment centers, as well as its corporate offices.

'We'll also be encouraging customers and members to wear face coverings when they shop with us,” the news release said. 'We have evolved our policy on face coverings from optional to mandatory as public health guidance has shifted. The CDC now recommends wearing face coverings in public settings, including grocery stores, to help curb the spread of the virus.”

Walmart explained in the release that it was requiring masks based on recent studies showing a significant portion of individuals with the virus lack symptoms and can transmit the virus.