Activity

An experience today that I thought worth sharing. This has to do with masks.
Every few weeks I drive about an hour into the nearest city to replenish stocks of food and other basic necessities (like toilet paper -lol).
The place I go to is not mainstream; it is actually a large semi-local chain of ’employee owned’; stores.
On with the story…
This store ‘requires’ masks to enter. Today I chose not to wear one at all (previously I had worn one under my nose with zero active response by anyone).
All went well throughout my shopping experience until I reach the check-out counter.
I’ll back up a bit…
I let a lady (asian spanish mix?) go in front of me because she had very little in her basket and I had a lot (plus I had two different transactions because I shopped for one other party besides myself). Anyway, she and I chatted while in line. Interestingly, as she spoke with me, she would pull down her mask to talk.
As I got closer to the register, the gal behind the counter motioned to me and with miming motions suggested I put on a mask. I pretended not to comprehend.
Minutes went by and the asian/hispanic lady and I continued our conversation (basically about different ways to cook meatloaf).
Not too long after the register lady had mimed the put-on-a-mask request, another employee showed up. After a brief consultation with the register gal, he came up to me and asked if I had a mask. My response was “not today”.
He then offered to open up a different line of checkout just for my transaction. Fine by me.
After a brief consultation with this person (oh, by the way there was an ‘elderly – probably in her 60’s – person that appears to have instigated this whole situation – finishing check-out by the way – two people in front of me)
I was able to purchase all in my cart and go on my way.
One last note, the asian/hispanic lady and I finished about the same time. She stopped to thank me again for letting her go ahead – she pulled down her mask to say so.
All in all a decent experience. It will be interesting to see what happens next time.
I plan to explore other ‘large food retail outlets’ in other relatively close proximity to where I live before I need to resupply again. Perhaps I will find one that is pro-no mask. I hope so.