AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
- Insider spoke with 8 retail workers on the return of mask mandates as COVID-19 cases surge.
- Some workers said they feel safer if shoppers wear masks. But they worry about new levels of anger and violence.
- Retail workers have confronted anger and violence over mask wearing.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Some retail workers are worried about going back to policing mask use in stores and restaurants, following new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC recently recommended that everyone mask up indoors in areas with "high transmission," after saying in May that vaccinated individuals could drop masks indoors. Some companies have followed suit by also resurrecting mask requirements for all.
Insider interviewed 8 store-level employees of major chains including Walmart, Ikea, and Starbucks. They appear split on whether their employers should mandate masks and vaccines for workers and customers. But most agree that as frontline employees, they don't want to be in charge of forcing shoppers to comply with any such mandates.
In some cases, shoppers have violently retaliated against workers over mask requirements. A Family Dollar security guard was murdered last year during a dispute over masks. A grocery cashier was shot and killed in June after she asked a customer to wear a mask.
In response to customer hostility, some retail workers have "rage-quit" their jobs. Those who remain in their jobs may soon be tasked with asking shoppers once again to wear masks.
Workers expect renewed anger over masks
"I would love if our customers still had to wear masks," said Jeannette Randall, a Safeway store employee in Roxbury, Washington. "It would give all employees a bit of relief in being in fear of the Delta variant." (Safeway's parent company, Albertsons, is considering reinstating a mask requirement).
Randall said she is fully vaccinated, but she's fearful of new variants and the possibility of infecting her unvaccinated 6-year-old child or her immunocompromised mother.
"The fear is still there and I know - even though I am vaccinated and masked - unless we all do our part, myself and my family are not 100% safe from COVID," she said.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
A Massachusetts-based Walmart worker said enforcing mask mandates will be more difficult now that some people dropped masks over the summer and had a "taste of freedom." Walmart recently said it would require vaccinations for corporate employees and reinstated mask-wearing for vaccinated associates in high-transmission areas.
"People are getting tired of contradicting information and uncertain levels of precaution toward minimizing the outbreak," the Walmart worker said. This employee, along with several others, asked to remain anonymous so they could speak freely on the topic. Insider confirmed their identities.
Starbucks is now requiring all staff in its company-owned stores to wear masks. Vaccinated customers must wear masks in areas with local mandates.
One Starbucks barista in Nebraska said, "Overall, baristas are a little miffed, especially those who have their vaccine shots and have been without masks for a month or more now."
Workers don't want to enforce mask mandates
A California-based Walmart worker called the return to mask-wearing a "step backwards" for the vaccinated. He said retailers should instead require proof of vaccines at store entrances.
An Ikea worker, also based in California, said they don't want to have to enforce mask-wearing, even though they support the practice. Ikea allowed vaccinated shoppers to remove masks in stores in May, and has not since changed that policy.
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"I think having a mask mandate again will make those difficult customers elevate to new levels of rebellion and anger," the worker said. "The first time around I was scared every time I told someone they had to wear a mask because I wasn't sure if they would comply, or if they would cuss at me and spit at me."
A different Ikea employee in a Midwestern state also said that their coworkers are concerned about a return to mask mandates.
"I don't think anyone wants it mandated for customers again because it makes customers irrationally angry to have to wear a mask and they become awful to deal with," the worker said. "At this point in the pandemic, nobody has the energy for that crap anymore."