The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

GROCERY store managers said yesterday that while they support the lifting of the country’s mask mandate, they also believe businesses should be allowed to set their own mask wearing rules for customers.

One of them was Kim Smith, manager of Village Grocery Store on Paradise Island.

While fully supporting the government’s decision to relax the mask protocols, Ms Smith also said business owners should be allowed to decide whether they want to keep mask protocol in place for customers.

This, she added, is because some workers may be at high risk for contracting the disease.

“We are totally in agreement because this mandate should have been lifted months ago because as you know, I am here on Paradise Island so we have such a problem with the tourists because when they come out of the hotels, they then are faced with a whole set of rules of having to wear masks because once they’re in the hotel, they don’t have to wear masks and the employees don’t have to wear masks,” she said.

“I think at this point, it should be lifted and in terms of my staffing, if any of them feel that they want to wear their mask they can so I am not going to tell them that they can’t wear a mask.”

In terms of businesses establishing their own health entry protocols, she added: “They should give us the leeway to do just as we should (because) we know our customers and we know our employees and we should have some autonomy in terms of being able to make the right decision for our business so that’s how I feel personally.”

Cyril Carey, manager of Kenneth’s food store, also expressed similar sentiments to this newspaper.

“I welcome it because at this point, from what I’ve seen abroad, people have been managing it pretty well,” he said of the impending end to the mask mandate. “We’ve already started it in the hotels and if The Bahamas has given them the privilege, why should the Bahamian people in general not have the same privileges as the individuals in the hotels?

“Giving business owners the freedom to do as they please in regard to (mask wearing) and if they wish because it’s their establishment, I feel that the government should be a bit lenient for the owners who request that individuals wear a mask coming into their stores so we should have the flexibility.”

However, some people in the business sector share a different view.

Krystynia Lee D’Arville, co-president of the Bahamas Federation of Retailers, said she doesn’t believe that businesses should require their customers to wear masks once the mandate has been lifted, noting it should be a personal choice for the customer.

“I don’t think that the government should involve itself in these policies with the private sector. I believe that if an individual wishes to wear their mask, then that individual could make that choice just as any medical issue that someone has. If they wish to wear a mask, then they should wear a mask for their own comfort,” she told this newspaper.

“I don’t think we as businesses and/or the government, once it is lifted and then it is up to the individual, I don’t think that businesses should force and/or be forced to make those decisions when we are through the pandemic.”

“I think that can be on an individual basis and the government and visitors need now to get out of the medical arena. Now in the medical world, that’s one thing but in the private sector enterprise, it’s another.”

While mask wearing is not currently required in outdoor settings, it is still largely required indoors.

But, as of October 1, mask wearing will not be required in most settings except for in healthcare facilities, senior care homes or in an indoor classroom setting.

A school may request exemption from the mask requirement if at least 80 percent of students and 90 percent of staff are fully vaccinated.