KERRVILLE, Texas – When Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he would suspend the Covid-19 mask’s mandate across the state, he left the companies responsible for defining and enforcing their own policies. HEB, a beloved Texas grocer and a sturdy one during previous state crises, waffled.
The company, which has undergone a series of altercations in its corridors because of the mask policy, initially said it would encourage customers to wear masks, but would require them from employees. A few days later, after some customers and workers criticized the owner of the grocery store, the chain clarified its position. He would leave posters and continue to advertise stating that masks are necessary and would offer them to buyers without a mask. HEB also said it would continue with its policy of not aggravating situations in which the customer refuses to wear a mask.
The change in HE-B’s message reflects the balancing act that many companies in Texas now face after the state charged them with defining and enforcing the masking policy. Since the order was suspended on March 10, some HEB employees and customers say they have noticed more unmasked customers shopping in the aisles.
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Following the network’s initial statement that it would encourage customers to wear masks, HEB President Scott McClelland told the Houston Chronicle that the governor’s move lifted stores from the “obstacle” provided by the threat of a fine, which he said it could get more people to come in. stores without masks. McClelland said he needed to weigh the physical well-being of customers and employees due to frequent masquerade disputes 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 ones that most polarize,” McClelland told the Chronicle. “Partly because they were used as a political weapon and partly because, frankly, people don’t like wearing masks.”
HEB said it expects customers to continue wearing masks in its stores and that it has increased security in many of its stores. “The end of the mask decrees puts real pressure on retailers to impose an emotional policy on 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 term on March 10.
Photograph:
Bob Daemmrich / Zuma Press
Several HEB officials said they have noticed an increase in the number of people who have not worn masks since Abbott’s announcement. An HEB employee in the Bryan-College Station area of eastern Texas said that during his tenure he would notice an unmasked client perhaps every hour or so. Last week, as an experiment, he started counting people who did not wear masks during one of his shifts. In about five hours, he saw 38 people without masks.
The official said he would like HEB to take a firmer stance in favor of the 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 at all … but it’s the right thing.”
At a HEB in Kerrville, a small town in central Texas, Hill Country, employees did not seem to be bothering the few unmasked buyers who showed up last Friday morning.
“I don’t like being told what to do,” said a male client. “Let me make that decision.”
Some of the largest retail chains, theaters, hotels and restaurants have said they plan to continue to demand masks in Texas, Mississippi and other states that have lifted restrictions.
Many local businessmen applauded the policy change, especially in hard-hit sectors, such as restaurants that are desperate to bring customers back. In a March survey of more than 700 restaurants conducted by the Texas Restaurant Association, 44% of respondents said they would not require more facial coverage from their customers.
Anthony Fauci, the United States government’s chief infectious disease physician, says it is risky to contain public health measures because coronavirus cases can stabilize and then recover.
HEB, founded by the Butt family in 1905, has more than 400 stores across the state. The network was praised for its preparedness for the pandemic when Covid-19 first attacked, has been a major competitor in launching vaccines and is regularly praised for its response to hurricanes and other disasters.
Katy Bravenec, 37, said she lost faith in HEB after her initial statement and no longer plans to shop at her store in San Antonio. Bravenec said he evaluated three HE-Bs after the mask’s mandate was withdrawn to see if customers were allowed to buy without a mask. After seeing a handful of masked customers at each store, she said she would take her business to a nearby Trader Joe’s.
“It didn’t match their public image,” she said. “You cannot claim to be a strong partner in the community and then remove the mask when it is not only available to your employees, but also to our community. It looked hypocritical. “
Wendy Wright shopping at a HEB in Houston, but said she would consider moving to the next Kroger Co.
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store if she sees an increase in the number of unmasked buyers. Ms. Wright said she has been at HEB twice since the Republican governor terminated the mask’s term. On the first trip, she estimated that about 10% of customers were without a mask. She gave the store one more chance last Sunday and didn’t notice any customers or employees without a mask.
“I’m going to buy it week after week, and if it looks like a safe place to shop, I stay. If they let the masks slide, I’ll go to another store, ”she 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 is not a law.’
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Other Texas companies have struggled to find out if and how to respond to the lifting of restrictions.
In Pearland, Good Vibes Burgers & Brews told local media when the order was suspended that it was discarding all mask requirements. A day later, on March 11, the company said that all employees would wear masks and that they would distribute disposable ones to any customer they wished. A company spokeswoman declined to comment.
Augie Bering V, owner of Bering’s hardware stores in Houston, said it was a relief when Texas put on a mask during the summer. Since then, he said, few unmasked people have visited the stores. Taking the order out of the mask put business owners in a difficult position, he said.
“We were put in the middle,” he said. “Some of the conversations we had were, ‘We need to demand this so that we can apply 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 this as a political thing. “
Almost everyone at Kerrville’s HEB was masked on Friday morning last week, two days after the term was suspended. The choices are largely regional, said Rachel Townsend, 24, a mental health worker. She notices many more people wearing masks in Kerrville, which has a large population of retirees, than in her hometown of Uvalde, in southern Texas, she said.
In Fort Worth, Tatiana Miller, 39, said she sympathized with Texas companies involved in the mask debate. Miller said companies have no way of enforcing a mask policy, with or without a mandate. She said she agrees with the policy of encouraging customers to use a facial cover, but does not make it mandatory to enter.
“Texans like their choice. It would be easier for people to decide what they should and shouldn’t do, ”she said. “I really feel that companies cannot win.”
Write to Patrick Thomas at [email protected] and Elizabeth Findell at [email protected]
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