On Friday, Home Depot reversed its policy of requiring customers to wear masks in their stores.
Now, the box store chain will require customers nationwide to wear masks inside its stores beginning July 22.
Home Depot will have employees dedicated to customer compliance with that policy.
This announcement comes two days after a KUOW story revealed that Home Depot’s policy was not to impose the use of masks, despite a state ordinance to the contrary.
“Social distancing captains” at Home Depot stores will ask customers without a mask to put one on, said Margaret Smith, a spokeswoman for Home Depot. Those without masks will receive one.
KUOW’s report focused on a single Home Depot in Tukwila, south of Seattle. This store was not enforcing a mask mandate asking companies to reject customer service without covering their faces. The law went into effect on July 7 as an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as cases locally are increasing.
However, it was not the only store. The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries received about 50 complaints about Home Depot locations across the state in the past week, according to Tim Church, a spokesman for Labor and Industries.
Church said that one complaint in particular reported that about 20 customers within a Home Depot location had no facial coverage. The Labor and Industries department spoke to Home Depot leaders on Thursday, Church said.
“We made it perfectly clear that we hope they protect the health and safety of workers,” Church said. “A big part of that is making sure that customers wear masks when they walk into the store.”
Church said Home Depot appeared to be “committed to cooperating” with the Washington state mask mandate as of this moment.
Home Depot will now take a different approach for Washington state customers who refuse to mask themselves while inside. Smith said that while it is too dangerous to physically deny a customer’s entry, if a customer becomes combative or routinely refuses to comply and wear a mask, stores will take further action, including by granting access to Home Depot stores.
KUOW learned of Home Depot’s previous policy of not requiring skins from a cashier who works at Home Depot in Tukwila. He said management told him not to refuse service to any customers, and that employees should only offer masks, not demand them.
He showed KUOW an email that management sent him.
“We as a company are putting up signs to order the masks, but we can only enforce our associates,” the email said. “We should not reject clients or reject service. We can offer them a mask if we see a client without a mask, but again, we must not continue with the mandate.”
Smith, the Home Depot spokesperson, confirmed this previous policy of not requiring skins in an email to KUOW.
“When required by local mandates, we ask customers to wear masks in our stores through signage and announcements on our public address system,” said Smith. “We have not required stores to monitor local mandates, because it can be dangerous to put our associates in that position.”
Social media has been packed with videos of customers reacting aggressively when employees confront them for not wearing a mask at other businesses in the U.S.
