Bucking to recent trend of major retailers Heeding the guidelines of health experts to curb the coronavirus, Winn-Dixie’s father, Southeastern Grocers, will not require customers to wear face masks at his 550 stores in seven states.
The Jacksonville, Florida-based network said Sunday that it does not want to get involved in a controversial issue, leading to viral crisis and even deadly violence in retail settings.
“Masking mandates are a highly charged problem with our clients,” the company told CBS News in an email. “We don’t want to put our associates in a position to navigate interpersonal conflicts or prohibit customers from shopping in our stores.”
Southeastern Grocers is calling on state and federal governments “to remove the challenging burden of front-line employee enforcement and to make the masks mandatory by law,” he said in his statement.
The supermarket chain’s stance on whether its workers wear masks has recently changed. Southeastern Grocers said in their email statement that employees must wear facial covers on the job unless they have a medical reason, a departure from their previous policy of voluntary use of masks by employees.
The company in late June said it would stop offering rebates, exchanges, rain checks, and self-service offerings to help ensure the safety of its customers and workers by minimizing face-to-face contact situations.
The chain manages retail locations that include pharmacies and liquor stores within the Winn-Dixie, Bi-Lo, Harveys Supermarket and Fresco y Más banners in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Many retail and grocery workers have expressed concern about customers’ refusal to wear masks, and the problem has caused conflict in stores. In May, a Family Dollar store security guard was shot and killed in Flint, Michigan, after telling a customer that her son had to wear a face mask to enter the store, the county attorney’s office said.
Walmart, Target and CVS are among the top retailers enacting policies demanding that both customers and employees wear a mask to help curb the spread of COVID-19. The disease is emerging in many parts of the country and has killed more than 143,000 Americans.
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