Paul Goldfinger, MD, Blogfinger.net
Governor of NJ ruling: Starting today, May 28th, face masks and social distancing are no longer required in most indoor public spaces. Face masks are still required for all individuals in public transportation, health care facilities, correctional facilities, and homeless shelters, with certain exceptions, and may be required in child care centers, K-12 schools, and other areas of concern, with certain exceptions. Businesses may continue to require face masks for employees, customers, and guests
CDC COVID-19: Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
Today we went maskless to Wegmans. There was no sign on the entry door to explain their policy. As a business with customers on site, one would expect a policy to guide their customers.
About 1/3-1/2 of customers wore no mask. A customer service rep. told us that Wegmans would leave the decision up to their customers, but she said that they would like those who were maskless to be fully vaccinated; but they could not enforce such a rule because they didn’t want to ask anyone about their vaccination history. We heard no verbal challenges in the store.
On the way out we spotted a sign behind a column. Only a sharp exiting customer would have read that sign as I did.
Wegmans sign visible to those exiting if they looked around. Blogfinger photo 6/1/21.
It seems to us that Wegmans should have placed this notice at the entrance, not out of the way near the exit. Their customer service rep seemed to us to be uneasy in discussing this evasive non-policy. We don’t know what “local level” means, and they are not going to challenge anyone to show proof of vax.
She hesitatingly said that “Wegmans’ customers can be relied on to do what’s right.” As for their employees, all must be masked until July.
Why July? Who knows? This sounds like an arbitrary decision. One checker shrugged and said, “We’ve come this far, so we can wait till July.”
This is a cop-out by Wegpersons which is a business that can choose any policy they want regarding masking in their store, but they won’t take responsibility for coming up with a definitive ruling for their business.
It seems to us that we are in a transition phase, probably for a few days in which the rolling ball will pick up speed and most customers will be maskless at Wegpersons.