Texas Grocer HEB gets caught in the middle of the mask division

The shift in HE-B’s message reflects the balance that many businesses in Texas are now facing, after the state put them in charge of drafting and enforcing mask policies. Since the mandate was lifted on March 10, some employees and customers of the HEB say they have noticed more maskless customers buying in the aisles.

After the chain’s initial statement that it would ask customers to wear masks, HE President Scott McClelland told the Houston Chronicle that the governor’s move had deprived him of the “backstop” that the threat of a fine provided, which according to him could lead to more people shopping without masks. Mr McClelland said he should weigh the physical well-being of customers and employees, given the frequent disputes over masks in stores, even if the state mask rules were in force.

“Of all the issues we’ve dealt with over the past year, masks are the most polarizing,” he said. McClelland told the Chronicle. “Partly because it was used as a political weapon and partly because people honestly do not like wearing masks.”

HEB said it expects buyers will continue to wear masks in its stores and that security will be increased in many of its locations. “The termination of masquerade ordinances puts significant pressure on retailers to apply an emotional policy to many, and we will not ask our Partners to harm themselves,” the company said in a written statement.

Several HEB employees have said that since the announcement of Mr. Abbott sees an increase in the number of people not wearing masks. An employee at a HEB in the Bryan-College Station neighborhood in east Texas said he would notice an unmasked buyer during the mandate every hour or so. Last week, as an experiment, during one of his shifts, he started taking along people who were not wearing masks. In about five hours, he saw 38 people without masks.

The employee said he wished HEB would take a stronger stance in favor of masks, although he said he understood it would be difficult to implement. “They do not want chaos and fighting at their stores,” he said. “I do not think it’s an easy choice at all … but it’s the right thing to do.”

At an HEB in Kerrville, a small town in Hill Hill, Texas, employees apparently did not bother the few unmasked buyers who showed up last Friday morning.

“I do not like people telling me what to do,” said one male customer. “Let me make that decision.”

Some of the largest retail, theater, hotel and restaurant chains said they plan to continue to require masks in Texas, Mississippi and other states that have lifted restrictions.

Many local business owners have encouraged the policy shift, 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 no longer need to cover customers for their customers.

HEB, founded in 1905 by the Butt family, has more than 400 stores throughout the state. The chain was praised for its pandemic preparation when Covid-19 first struck, was a major competitor in the deployment of vaccines and is regularly praised for its response to hurricanes and other disasters.

Katy Bravenec, 37, said she lost confidence in HEB after the initial statement and no longer plans to go shopping at her San Antonio store. Me. Bravenec said it investigated three HE-Bs after the mask mandate was lifted to see if customers could buy without masks. After seeing a handful of customers not wearing masks at every store, she said she would take her business to a nearby Trader Joe’s.

“It does not match their public image,” she said. ‘You can not claim to be a strong community partner and then lift the mask mandate if it is not only there for your workers but also for our community. It just seemed hypocritical. ”

Wendy Wright has stores at a HEB in Houston, but said she would consider switching to the nearby Kroger Co.

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save when she notices an increase in maskless buyers. Wright said she has been to the HEB twice since the Republican governor revoked the mask mandate. On the first trip, she estimated that about 10% of buyers were maskless. She gave the store another chance this past Sunday and noticed no customers or employees without a mask.

‘I take it week after week, and if it looks like a safe place to shop, I stay there. If they make masks slip, I’m going to another store, ‘she said. “I’m 60 and do not want to play with Covid.”

Other Texas businesses have grappled with the question of whether and how to respond to lifting restrictions.

In Pearland, the Good Vibes Burgers & Brews restaurant told local media that when the mandate was lifted, all mask requirements would be removed. A day later, on March 11, the company said that all employees would wear masks and that they would hand out disposable parts to every customer who wanted them. A company spokesman declined to comment.

Augie Bering V, owner of Bering’s hardware stores in Houston, said it was a relief when Texas instituted a mask mandate over the summer. Since then, few unmasked people have visited the stores. The removal of the mask order puts business owners in a difficult position, he said.

“We’re put in the middle,” he said. “Some of the conversations we had were, ‘We have to require it so we can apply it.’ ‘But the more we talked about it, it was not right to apply it, because it is not a law. People could see it as a political issue. ‘

Almost everyone at the Kerrville HEB was masked last Friday morning, two days after the mandate was lifted. Rachel Townsend, 24, a mental health worker, says the choices are largely regional. She sees far more people wearing masks in Kerrville, with a high retired population, than in her hometown of Uvalde in southern Texas, she said.

In Fort Worth, Tatiana Miller, 39, said she sympathizes with Texas businesses caught up in the mask debate. Me. Miller said businesses have no way of applying a mask policy, with or without a mandate. She said she agrees with the policy of urging customers to wear a face mask, but not making it mandatory for access.

Texans like their choice. It will be easier for people to decide what to do or not, ”she said. “I do feel like businesses can’t win.”

Write to Patrick Thomas at [email protected] and Elizabeth Findell at [email protected]