I walked out of a convenience store last night (UPDATED)

[cab67]

Last edited Sun May 3, 2020, 02:52 PM - Edit history (2)

I ran in to get some pop after buying gas. I was wearing a mask.

The cashier was wearing neither mask nor gloves. He gave me a condescending look.

As I approached him, I noticed a sign taped to the wall behind him saying, "NO MASKS REQUIRED. THIS IS A NO-FEAR ZONE." This despite the fact that both the state governor and local city council have issued mask orders. I put the pop down and walked out.

I'm thinking of contacting the national chain office to let them know what one of their franchises is doing.

Additional note: this was in Illinois. Strictly speaking, the governor's order doesn't specifically require wearing masks in stores. It requires wearing them if maintaining social distance is not possible. Which would be true for pretty much any convenience store.

UPDATE: This particular store isn't very close to where I am in Illinois. (I'm not a full-time IL resident, but for a couple of reasons, I've been here for most of the pandemic.) But I thought that if I were to contact someone about this, photographic evidence would be useful - so I went back to get some.

Long story short - neither the sign nor the idiot behind the cash register was present. I'm not the only person who saw them, nor am I the only one to have had a problem with either. Turns out, this wasn't the policy of the local franchise. It was entirely on the single late-night staff member, who is evidently now a former employee. He was one of the don't tread on me, and don't stop me from treading on you types, and the store had gotten complaints about him before, mostly for running his mouth at people who really didn't care what he thought of the current state of affairs.

[elleng]

1. You SHOULD contact them.

[Codifer]

72. I would imagine

that the owner would have seen the tapes of the security camera. How many folks had put their merchandise down and walked out? All on camera. Bad for bidness,

[Beakybird]

2. I would also contact the city know as well.

[brewens]

3. Yup. Call and give them hell. What state is that? n/t

[left-of-center2012]

50. As stated in the OP ...

"Additional note: this was in Illinois."

[LisaM]

4. Yeah that sign would tick me off.

If it was just an unmasked cashier, I would think twice about squealing, but that sign indicates a mindset that is harmful to public health.

[Laelth]

8. +1 n/t

-Laelth

[Tiger8]

83. Yes, indicates a Limbaugh, FOX News, Trump cultist

Flouting common sense is on level....but the sign tells me that’s a full on cultist, Kool-Aid drinker.

[Ms. Toad]

5. Many convenience stores are locally owned franchises -

with little connection to the national chain other than permission to use their name.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try - just don't be surprised if they tell you it is out of their control.

[mopinko]

9. they all have some sort of tos.

everybody got rules to follow when there are lawyers and contracts.

[Ms. Toad]

11. I've worked with some of them

in a professional capacity (both tax and law). There are fewer requirements in many of them (particularly convenience stores) than you might imagine.

[mopinko]

21. i'm sure. but there must be some baseline language on

health and sanitation, yes?

[Ms. Toad]

23. It depends on the agreement.

Some are not much more than the right to use the name for a fee with restrictions that tend to be related to misuse of trade name and trade dress.

[mopinko]

51. sounds like subway. otoh

i know someone who was mickey d corporate lawyer, as well as one of their graphic designers.
i dont think they print an nyc phone book any more, but that's about what their contracts are like.

also went to school w a guy who flipped burgers at 16 in one of the first mickey's stores. saw him a few years ago. never worked for anyone else, owns 23 franchises in ariz, and is a very, very, very rich man.
that only happens in a corp that sees the whole picture.

i would have thought better of 7-11.

[lastlib]

12. It's not out of their control.

If the national chain has any kind of stipulation in their franchise agreement about following state & local health guidelines and the chain's policies (as they most likely would), they've got leverage.

[Ms. Toad]

14. I was speaking from my professional experience

specifically with convenience stores (from both a tax and law perspective). In many there are very few ties beyond the right to use the name.

[obamanut2012]

16. Nope, they have to abide by certain terms/TOS.etc.

They absolutely can tell them they ahve to abide by state and local orders, laws, and policies. Period. They can yank the franchise for that. At the very least, they can come and take all the signs down, including gas pump signs.

[Ms. Toad]

17. Nothing you are saying disputes the obsservation I shared

from my professional experience both as a tax professional and as an attorney who has worked with convenience stores. Many such agreements impose very few requirements in exchange for the right to use the name.

You are absolutely right that IF what they are doing violates the law - AND - if their contract with the franchise requires it - they can have their franchise yanked.

I never said otherwise. What I said was that from my experience of working with such agreements in a professional capacity - many (specifically convenience stores) impose very few restrictions.

If the restrictions aren't there in the first place, there's nothing the franchise can do.

[wnylib]

30. They also have to abide by local

and state laws. Report this to city AND state officials.

A local CVS employee told me that she is not allowed to tell a customer without a mask to leave. This is in NY state, where Cuomo has publicly said that businesses serving the public are entitled to turn away people who come in without masks. The employee told me that management is concerned that if they turn away someone without a mask, the person might start a FB campaign against the store in retaliation.

[RussellCattle]

6. Absolutely you should call the national chain office and complain with....

....all the specifics that you can use. Time, place and date for sure. Maybe call the store in question and talk to the manager first to see if it's his initiative to post that sign first, and not just one of his idiot employees. But if he's on board I'd make sure to mention his name.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. More to the point, the state governor and local city council

have issued mask orders.

Call city hall, call the governor's office. Maybe the local cops.

[jmg257]

10. Is that one you pull your mask down, say "Thank God!", &

Than start coughing a lot?

Hint ur waiting for ur test results.

[orleans]

69. thanks for the laugh n/t

[safeinOhio]

13. Funny, but I couldn't do it.

Pull down your mask, cough and say you are only wearing one because you tested positive and the doctor told you to wear it.

[DURHAM D]

15. lol You had me at "pop". nt

[catbyte]

18. Yeah, you can always tell what area of the country you're from by

whether you say "pop" or "soda." I always say "pop," my late husband who grew up in upstate New York always called it "soda."

[DURHAM D]

29. Where I grew up it was pop.

Then I moved to coke. Later to soda. Then back to pop.

Every once in awhile I screw up and call it soda or coke and then they say "Where are you from?" When I respond "here" they say "Where else did you live?"

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Tell me again how wearing a mask is fear but carrying a gun is protection

[Grokenstein]

31. Ha! Stealing that!

(On a sadder note, this whole debate will be moot in two weeks or less.)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

32. I stole it before you :) Oh, there will always be dead-ender flu-bro trumpanzees. . . nt

[Oppaloopa]

47. I will wear mine straight thru the fall. My state is not going to allow the real numbers of death

to be known They already stopped the Medical office from releasing the data . Kinda reminds me of Vietnam.When we were winning that war too.

[progressoid]

34. +1

[cab67]

44. I'm totally stealing this.

[smirkymonkey]

68. +1000

[calimary]

82. LOVE this! Outstanding graphic!

[KentuckyWoman]

20. What other consumer protection laws are they refusing to follow?

Can't trust their products.

[40RatRod]

22. Or you could have said...

...while reaching for your mask, "I'm sorry, I didn't notice your sign. I only wear it to protect other since I have the virus, cough, cough."

[aggiesal]

24. Don't think about it, do it ...

I gave feedback to CostCo and asked why it wasn't mandatory to wear a mask while shopping at CostCo?

This week they made it mandatory, except at the gas pumps (:banghead .

This Covidiot needs to learn that these masks are there for a purpose.

[Marrah_Goodman]

25. You need to contact the city/state

[Roy Rolling]

26. Picture?

It would be nice to advise your neighbors of stores willing to ignore biological and medical disease science.

That would certainly be a good thing to know if you are buying fresh food items. I’m guessing that picture is not the standard of microbiological cleanliness they wish to brag about publicly.

[NBachers]

33. Yup, I agree - a picture is the most effective way to back up your complaint.

[marble falls]

27. Reporting serious issues about public safety is not 'narcing'.

[C Moon]

28. A small market near my home, the owner doesn't wear a mask or gloves. He wore a mask one day

after it was mandatory in L.A. for them to wear one (along with patrons); but he stopped wearing it the next time I was there, so I quit going.

[Hangingon]

35. Has any one noticed the "No HoodiesAllowed" signs?

I saw one on a convenience store door outside a military base. First time I ran across one.

[jmbar2]

36. Tell them you're an embalmer

Thanks for letting me take off my mask in your store. I get so tired of wearing them when I'm embalming all the bodies.

[jumptheshadow]

37. Yes, they are pushing this idea that quarantining is cowardly

I've seen it a few times now, straight from people who push the Heartland Institute agenda.

I was heartened this morning to see two memes pushing against the corrosive right-wing propaganda.

The first showed a bunch of Star Trek red shirt guys with the caption: "The first wave of people waiting to go back to social gatherings."

The second: "Me staying at home when (my state) re-opens. In chess, the pawns go first."

[The Wizard]

38. Infecting others

Is not a right guaranteed by the constitution.

[rainin]

39. The ways they find to divide us astounds me

Now we are divided between those who wear masks and those who don't. Jeeez

[Baitball Blogger]

40. I know how to wake these right-wingers up.

Tell them that they aren't the first to think they were invincible. There was once a place called Castro Street that also thought it was a no-fear zone. Maybe it's time to revisit the book, "And the Band Played On." Because we're making all the same mistakes.

[Oppaloopa]

41. Do it please I wrote to Aldi's corporate over this also

[progree]

42. What if one isn't afraid for oneself but rather for someone of fragile health that they take care

of or just live with?

For example my sister's husband has serious COPD (and no, he never smoked), and is elderly, and she worries a lot about infecting him.

What if the fearless person doesn't want to put someone else that they might infect through this?

https://www.propublica.org/article/a-medical-worker-describes--terrifying-lung-failure-from-covid19-even-in-his-young-patients

... The ventilator should have been doing the work of breathing but he was still gasping for air, moving his mouth, moving his body, struggling. We had to restrain him. With all the coronavirus patients, we’ve had to restrain them. They really hyperventilate, really struggle to breathe. When you’re in that mindstate of struggling to breathe and delirious with fever, you don’t know when someone is trying to help you, so you’ll try to rip the breathing tube out because you feel it is choking you, but you are drowning.

Sorry about this, I don't like posting it. But if a few more people are extra careful as a result of reading this, and if consequently it spares one or two people from ending up in this situation, then I will be very gratified. I know it's affected how much risk I'm willing to take. Not just for myself, but for others I might infect.

Too many people assume they will be pretty much knocked out with drugs, so won't be that bad, ... may not be a good assumption.

[subterranean]

57. That's the situation in my house, too.

My wife is the caregiver for her mother, who is currently living with us and has several risk factors in addition to her advanced age. Needless to say, we are being as careful as we can.

[appalachiablue]

43. Contact the state & local health depts. to let them

know about the Fearless and Ignorant store.

[RainCaster]

45. You need a photo of this - post it on social media

Public pressure will fix the stupidity

[calimary]

46. You should DEFINITELY contact the corporate headquarters.

They won't be happy to learn that their employees are so off-putting to customers and so inconsiderate that they won't be responsible to the public and wear a mask, just out of sheer courtesy and consideration of others if NOTHING else, that the chain is going to LOSE CUSTOMERS.

They really don't want YOU, anyway. They want YOUR MONEY. Which, don't forget, comes in through their door in YOUR pocket, and is transferred from YOUR pocket or wallet into THEIR cash register. THEY'RE the ones who should be showing respect.

They need to know this. Definitely and even more definitely!

[AllaN01Bear]

48. why is wearing a mask involking " vear" what is the felgercarbe ?

[jberryhill]

52. Indeed, I have often wondered about the felgercarbe

[patphil]

49. Walking out, and notifying the national chain is the best way to handle it.

They may be fear free, but they are also intelligence free.
They are risking their health and the health of their customers.
It's only a matter of time before the people who work in that store contract the virus, if they haven't already.
Non-protected customers will probably get the virus also, and the cycle of transmission continues.
At this point, I consider that kind of brainless response to the situation to be a sort of natural selection process. Unfortunately, innocent people are subject to their idiocy.
Hearing these kind of reports, and seeing unprotected people mixing with large numbers of other unprotected people in public places tells me the second wave will be ramping up in a month or so.

And so it continues.

[paleotn]

53. Hey, if they want to line up to be virus food...

whatever. The only fear is they will spread it to their friends and family who may not be asinine.

[uponit7771]

54. Warn him that insurance companies don't cover pandemics

[LeftInTX]

55. Our city shut down and revoked a few businesses

It wasn't over masks, but they were open when they weren't allowed to be open.

I would contact local authorities.

That sign is a big no-no.

You could also contact the media.

[Sogo]

56. Ha, ha....I'm in Iowa, and I knew, but

did anyone else on this thread ask you what "pop" is?

I thought it was only an Iowa expression, but must be more regional....

[cab67]

58. I'm normally an Iowa resident.

[Cousin Dupree]

62. It's pop in northern Ohio

[chia]

65. I know what pop is, but where I live in CA we say soda :)

[orleans]

71. western suburbs of chicago: pop

(except for some rouge children at my kid's school--maybe jr high, maybe high school--who remembers?--who insisted on calling it "soda." )

[Demovictory9]

59. that sign was out of line

[hwmnbn]

60. I knew you were from Illinois...

when you called it "pop" instead of soda.

[reACTIONary]

76. Or Missouri nt

[jaxexpat]

61. Convenience store franchise....

The last bastion of free wheeling capitalism, rugged individualism, the Marlboro men of commerce.

[Hekate]

63. Thanks for the Updates. You were not alone in being perturbed by him, and now he is alone...

...grousing about hard-done-by he is.

[BGBD]

64. A lesson to learn I suppose

We should't assume that just because something is going on at a business that the business is the problem. It might just be that one asshole working at that moment.

On the bright side, atleast this guy won't have to worry about being forced to wear a mask at work. lol

[George II]

66. Apparently within a 6 foot radius of that guy is a "no brains zone".

[Sogo]

67. Nice ending to the story.

And nice to hear when someone like that shoots himself in the foot.

[BigmanPigman]

70. I LOVE a happy ending!

[TygrBright]

73. awww... I love a happy ending... n/t

[cab67]

75. I just hope this numbnut doesn't have kids.

Not so happy for them if he does. Their father is no longer merely a right-wing nutjob; he's now an unemployed right-wing nutjob.

(Why someone would act in a way more or less guaranteed to end with "your services are no longer required" when so many businesses are shuttered defies explanation.)

[kyburbonkid]

74. Ya should-a paid him cash, using rubber gloves and laughed...

Last edited Sun May 3, 2020, 07:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Bwwwaahahahah 'another victim'.

[amb123]

77. BRAVO! ENCORE!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

78. Happy ending! Thank you!

[Totally Tunsie]

79. Shoulda' said "I DO have to wear this mask, and you should be fearful

because this is a stick-up! Hand me all the cash in the drawer!"

[Gothmog]

80. Good

[Crunchy Frog]

81. He can always get a job in a meat packing plant.