Weary U.S. Businesses Confront new Round of Mask Mandates

Businesses large and small are reinstituting mask mandates as U.S. coronavirus cases rise. Bars, gyms and restaurants across the country are requiring vaccines to get inside.

After a largely mask-free summer, it’s a reversal no one wanted to see, brought on by the fast-spreading delta variant and new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. But business owners and workers say they will do what they can to keep their doors open and not slow the economic gains of the last few months.

“We’ve already been through the worst of the challenges when we shut down the indoors last year,” said Brack May, the chef and owner of Cowbell, a New Orleans burger joint. “Let’s just get ahead of the curve here.”

May recently began requiring customers to show their vaccine cards for indoor dining. He said he wants to protect his workers, who are required to be vaccinated but have young children at home, as well as his neighborhood, where some musicians recently contracted the coronavirus.

May expects that eventually, vaccine rules like his will be commonplace. Next month, New York City will start requiring vaccinations to enter restaurants, gyms and theaters.

But for now, customers are far more likely to encounter mask mandates. After lifting mask recommendations for fully vaccinated people in May, the CDC reversed course in late July, recommending masks for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in areas of higher transmission.

The shifting guidance has caused confusion over which rules to enforce and how. Walmart and Target, for instance, recently began requiring masks for employees __ but not customers __ in areas where virus transmission rates are high. Home Depot’s mask mandate is nationwide.

A handful of places, like Louisiana, the San Francisco Bay area and Las Vegas, are mandating masks indoors.

Many business owners didn’t wait for the CDC or their local governments before acting. In mid-July, Tamra Patterson reinstituted a mask mandate and reduced seating capacity from 200 to 65 at Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe, the restaurant she owns in Memphis, Tennessee.

“I need every dollar and dime and penny I can get, but if I don’t have employees healthy, I don’t have a business. If customers are sick, I have nothing,” Patterson said.

Customers are generally receptive to the mask mandate, Patterson said. Only one has walked out.

Not every business supports the mandates. Basilico’s Pasta e Vino, a restaurant in Huntington Beach, California, has railed against masks on social media. A sign on its door requires patrons to prove that they’re unvaccinated.

Some workers also don’t want to see masks return.

Dru W., a grocery employee in Houston who asked not to use his full name for fear of reprisals at work, said he was fully vaccinated months ago and enjoys the freedom it gives him to go without a mask. Few stores around him are enforcing the new CDC guidelines, he said, and he won’t either.

“I didn’t get both my doses and deal with the rather gnarly side effects only to be told to go back to the way things were during the pandemic,” he said.

But other retail workers see masks as an important way to end the pandemic. Austin Ray Shanks, who works at a Walmart in Monroe, Washington, said he finds masks uncomfortable but necessary. He’s disappointed that many customers at his store refuse to wear them.

Marshall Crawley said his gym in Morrisville, North Carolina, recently announced that it would require masks for both vaccinated and unvaccinated patrons. But the rule isn’t being enforced, he said.

“It doesn’t really feel like it is doing much good wearing a mask when everyone around me is not,” said