This story was updated at 4:31 p.m. on Friday, July 17, with more information.
Food City will mandate all of its customers to wear masks inside all of its grocery stores, starting next Thursday.
Food City President Steve Smith said the grocery chain is joining a growing number of major retailers requiring all shoppers to put on facial coverings before entering their stores.
"We know that having a face covering is the most successful thing that we can do get this virus slowed down," Smith said Friday in an announcement of the new policy. "We're asking our customers now during their shopping experience in our stores to put your face coverings on to help protect yourself, help protect our associates, help protect your neighbors and help protect the economy because we don't want to have another shutdown like we had a few months ago. We think it's a small sacrifice that folks can make to be able to keep going forward and fight this darn virus."
Food City joins a growing list of retailers that have announced plans this week to mandate their customers wear masks at all stores.
The nation's largest retailer, Walmart, announced Wednesday that it would mandate face shields for all customers starting Monday. Publix Super Markets, Target and CVS Health followed the next day with similar announcements that they too will require customers enteringn any of their stores to wear face masks regardless of where cities or states stand on the issue. Starbucks, Best Buy, Kohl's and Kroger Co. have also announced mandatory masks nationwide this month.
Food City, a privately owned grocery store owned by K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc., operates 123 supermarkets in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and Georgia, including more than two dozen grocery stores in the Chattanooga area.
Virginia has mandated masks statewide for more than a month and Tennessee's major counties, including Hamilton and Knox counties, adopted mask mandates for all indoor shopping this month.
"We have seen a spike in Covid cases throughout our market," Smith said. "It's not a crisis mode yet, but we don't want it to get there. That's why we and other retailers — not coming together but acting independently — have decided to have a mask mandate in all of our stores."
Food City has mandated facial masks for all of its employees since May 1 when the Centers for Disease Control began recommending face coverings for those working in food service and other retail jobs selling goods and services to the public.
"Our customers applauded us for that change because it helped them feel safer in our stores," Smith said. "I know that has been tough on our folks who work an 8- or 10-hour shift with a face covering, but our Food City associates have done a great job bearing with it. I'm proud of them and I know they have helped save lives by doing that."
Retailers have hesitated to make masks mandatory for their customers out of fear of angering some customers over what, even in a pandemic, has become a political issue.
Smith said Food City won't impose the mandate at all of its stores until next Thursday to give adequate time for stores to put up signs about the new policy and to train safety managers who work in the front of the stores to provide the right message for customers coming into the store and to be aware of any persons with medical conditions that may not allow them to wear a mask.
Walmart's mandatory mask policy is effective Monday, while CVS's new mandate takes effect t on July 20 and Target's mask requirement begins Aug. 1.
The action by retailers comes as more states adopt mask mandates and law enforcement pledges to do more to help enforce the requirement to wear face coverings. The city of Chattanooga pledged Friday to lend two code enforcement workers from the Department of Economic and Community Development to assist the Hamilton County health department in issuing citations for businesses that are "egregiously" out of compliance.
"To be clear, we're not asking our store employees to play the role of enforcer, " said Jon Roberts, the chief operating officer at CVS, which announced its co. "What we are asking is that customers help protect themselves and those around them by listening to the experts and heeding the call to wear a face covering."
Food City will provide masks for those needing them, Smith said.
For those reluctant or unwilling to wear a mask, Smith urged such shoppers to use Food City's curbside pickup service so they won't have to come into one of the Food City supermarkets.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress
"all" - Google News
July 18, 2020 at 02:53AM
https://ift.tt/3hmjafN
Food City mandates masks at all stores starting Thursday, July 23 - Chattanooga Times Free Press
"all" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2vcMBhz
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Food City mandates masks at all stores starting Thursday, July 23 - Chattanooga Times Free Press"
Post a Comment