This is a difficult catch-22. Requiring proof of vaccination, while prudent, will cause confusion and upset some customers that front-line workers will then need to manage. We have all seen how challenging and at times dangerous this can be. Front-line staff should not be the mask police. However, the concerns about the Delta variant are very real and the store environment needs to be safe for staff and shoppers. Retailers should re-instate their COVID protocols on a market by market basis and adjust as conditions change. Every retailer will need to decide what posture they’re going to take and then implement it.

If each retailer was capable of having their own trained security on staff, then proof of vaccine to shop unmasked is reasonable. However that is not practical, thus the CDC needs to recommend a policy that isn’t ambiguous, practical, and considers the realities of the often younger and vulnerable front-line workforce that aren’t trained nor expected to be on-staff security.

Sure, I’d support it, but this ain’t China! Or even Europe. I mean, we can’t even ask Americans to wear shirts without a battle! Store associates aren’t bouncers. Best m.o. to me is to keep your staff as safe as possible (most protocols already in place) and let “freedom” ring. The whole thing is so exhausting. People can get sick if they want to, but don’t look at us weird when we won’t get near you.

Post #4 in a week? Really? If the union wants to use its voice in PR it should be they require all members to get vaccinated. This isn’t about cloth, it’s about shots. If you’re not willing to get the shot, why do the rest of us have to go backward and wear masks to try to protect those who don’t want it or acknowledge the risks?

Retailers must make their own choices about how they want to protect their employees and customers. The policies must be easily seen by their customers. If the policy warrants it, the employees must be properly trained on how to ask for verification and how to handle a customer who doesn’t want to comply. Front-line employees should not be put into a position of confrontation, but at a certain point must know they can go to a manager for support. This is going to stir even more controversy about what rights a person has. The store has a right to create the safest environment possible. Ideally, the two work together, but when it doesn’t everyone must know how to react.

Requiring store associates to ask to see a customer’s proof of vaccination is a bit much, but if that has to happen then for the associates safety it needs to be a job unto itself. Like a bouncer at a bar. As I type this I realize how ridiculous that sounds, but that’s where we are.

This entire situation isn’t good, worse because the state guidelines are wishy-washy. Are masks required or not? We travel to Las Vegas soon where the mask mandate is perfectly clear: wear one at all times indoors, but in my home of Illinois the guidelines are up for interpretation.

The brunt of what happens at store level falls onto front line associates. Retailers, large and small, need to do whatever it takes to protect them.

It’s now abundantly clear where voluntary action or lax masking and vaccination behaviors are taking us. All this “freedom of choice” is giving the virus the freedom it needs to do as much damage as possible. The simple lesson about vaccination and disease eradication was learned a long time ago. The new lesson appears to be how politics can override science. (I almost inserted the most grotesque pun ever.)

As usual, the new CDC guidance is too ambiguous for its own good. My nearby Kroger store is in a county with moderate transmission rates (so, no masks recommended) — while another Kroger store five miles to the south is in a “substantial” county.

It’s really up to Kroger (in this example) to reestablish clear guidelines, whether they are called recommendations or requirements. Other national retailers rushed in mid-May to drop mask mandates, and now they are scrambling for a response. Apple Stores have just taken the lead on this, and others will need to follow.

I think the simpler thing, for now is to require employees to be vaccinated. If more businesses do that, more people will be vaccinated. Being the mask police is exhausting, especially when people turn their masks into chin diapers when you turn around.

Like many, I’ve quite had enough of vaccine hesitancy. If the state governments won’t mandate it, it’s time for businesses to take the lead.

This is critical. But I can’t imagine a guard (or who ever) standing at the door asking for proof of vaccination and making sure their mask is on to gain entry into the store. But make no mistake, we seem to have the unfortunate opportunity to slip backwards in this pandemic, and that scares me. I do not think you can mandate staff (associates) to police the mask and/or proof-of-vaccination issues. But we are going to have to hold the line in the sand or fight this horrid nightmare for perhaps a long time.

Absolutely. This is a no brainer. Plus, require vaccinations of all store associates. The Delta variant and other yet unknown variants are serious stuff!

I read about 4 stories yesterday and all lead me to the same thing — the message is too confusing and there is a lot of room of different interpretation by retailers. It would be very difficult to ask customers to prove vaccination and probably create problems at the door. If they want people to wear masks in their stores- then they need to say it.

As much as I fight for the greater good, this is not enforceable without putting store associates in harm’s way. Armed security personnel are not going to cut it either. Unarmed security personnel may be equally helpless unless they come from a group of early-retired football players or Sumo wrestlers. My humor for the week. Employees should vaccinate and wear masks to protect themselves first and foremost.

I heard of a situation yesterday where someone who didn’t want to get vaccinated actually created a fake proof of vaccination so she could see her mother in the hospital and now has given her COVID. You just can’t account for stupid. Requiring proof of vaccination could help in a lot of cases but until we get the Delta variant under control, going back to in-store mask mandates could be the only solution.

I support requirements for proof of COVID-19 vaccination from shoppers in order to shop unmasked in stores. Nervous retailers should hire security to enforce this rule. I see nothing wrong with protecting the health and safety of shoppers. France has instituted a Vaccine Passport policy and Italy will follow in August. “Nobody” in those countries can enter stores, restaurants, museums, cafes, bars, etc. without showing the passport that signifies vaccination. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Using the honor system for mask usage never made sense to me and didn’t work. So, what to do now? Going back to restricting the number of people in the store at any one time is one possibility. That could be done in conjunction with again requiring masks for all employees and customers. Retailers could require employees to be vaccinated. Then comes enforcement. Retailers have security for confronting shoplifters — usually that means calling on security when a problem is observed. A similar system should be used when observing mask violations. Security can not be everywhere at once, but store employees who see a mask violation can call security.

What store workers would want to put themselves in harm’s way by trying to be the “mask police?” We’ve seen what the consequences can be. Besides which, many anti-vaxxers, like teenagers wanting beer, will have fake IDs or just lie. No way around this but to have masks required everywhere. I wish it weren’t so, but the stakes here are very high for our society.

What I don’t understand is why most people in “society” are okay with government rules on required vaccines for school: “According to the National Academy for State Health Policy, five routine childhood vaccines are generally required for children attending childcare or school in all states: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus or DTaP for childcare and schools; Haemophilus influenzae type B or Hib for childcare; measles, mumps and rubella or MMR for childcare and schools; polio for childcare and schools and varicella or chickenpox for childcare and schools.” All this has been seen as common sense by most everyone for many years.

I think proof of vaccination should be “required” — meaning that the store has a right to stop and ask. I do not think stores should re-establish mask police at the entrance.

In all this, what’s unusual is that most people I know who are vaccinated are the ones still wearing masks most often (I know I do). As always, we have a set of bad apples who refuse to be vaccinated yet want the privileges of not wearing a mask.

(That said, I know of people who are not vaccinated for medical reasons. They wear masks.)