[Gemme]

Originally Posted by Bèsame*

And this is what's going on in my part of the world...Houston area will be following this soon.

Effective Monday, June 22, in Bexar County, all Customers (over the age of 10) will be required to wear masks or face coverings in our stores. Hidalgo County, Harris County, Travis County, Cameron County, Webb County, and others are expected to issue similar mandates.



These mask mandates also dictate that while citizens may not be penalized for not complying, businesses will be fined for not having a policy in place. Therefore, in every store under such a mandate, there will be store signage and banners informing our customers that masks are required to shop in our stores. Initially, for the first couple of days of the mandates, we will be handing out masks to any customer without one.



If a customer refuses, we will not be asking our Partners to enforce the policy. We want to keep our Partners safe from customers who feel that wearing a mask is a violation of their rights and might turn to belligerent behavior or violence. If a customer asks why we are not enforcing the mask requirement, please direct them to a store Leader who can explain that these situations have had a history of escalating and we are focused on the physical safety of the Partner and other customers.

Rhode Island has been doing this for a while now (for us, it's age 3 and up unless a medical condition prohibits it) and it's been beneficial. We're actually decelerating the climb of COVID-19 and have the highest testing rate of all the states so it does work. It's crazy when you hear someone being stabbed or shot for trying to enforce a safety measure so be careful out there!