Publix no longer requires people to wear masks in their stores

Been that way for months, since probably last summer

Why am I not surprised?

Only TWO stores I found demand masks:

Menard's: Right Wing owner drove patrons to confront employees with policy. Guess what? The customers were removed physically if needed!

Trader Joe's: Good for them!

They even announce it every five minutes. And probably 99% of customers are properly masked. The employees, however, make no effort to mask, and management doesn’t care or try to enforce it.

I don’t shop Menards, but I heard only positive things about the one in my area.

Trader Joe’s was great for a few months, then slacked off. I was there one day when a man who was obviously very ill was shopping with his mask down, coughing and sneezing everywhere. Manager said he would take care of it, but he never did, and we gave up on shopping there.

Most Kroger shoppers I see are wearing masks. However, you can waltz in maskless, and be the fly in the punch bowl, with no blowback here since last summer. Apparently the company projected the position of "requiring masks" but enforcement leeway is given each store's Director to feel out the local situation (or Director's commitment).

As for Wisconsin-based Menards, they could give stuff away free and I'd still avoid them. Right wing owners, like them and Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip (differs from Oklahoma-based Quick Trip), also won't get my business.

I'm so glad I live here.

We were waiting to get our 2nd shot of vaccine, and observed many customers walking around without masks. Employees were all wearing masks.

But Publix has the best fried chicken (head and shoulders above KFC) and the best desserts.
Bought some oatmeal cookies with dried cranberries, so yummy!

I do credit Publix for making it so easy to setup shots for my parents. Their vaccine booking events have been very user-friendly: you find out pretty quickly whether you get an appointment or not and then you can go about your day.

Masks are still mandated in Ohio, and places of business are under state orders to enforce it. Yet store employees and managers refuse to enforce it - even when pointed out by a customer. They tell me there is nothing they can do.

And Whole Foods, and Target. Only Trader Joe's will confront, but they are not legally allowed to enforce. They have called Police.

I'm in South Florida. There are 4 Publix stores within a 10 minute drive from my house. They weren't letting anyone in the stores without masks. They would stop people at the door.

Whole Foods is covered with signage about proper masking and I’ve never seen anyone without. Here in western Pennsylvania, mask compliance is more by geography than by store chain—the farther you get from Pittsburgh, the worse the mask compliance.

and their fried chicken is the best I have eaten anywhere.

and they carry a few items we don't find at the big Target nearby

While in publix here getting the vaccine, there are signs that masks must be worn. Yet about 10 percent of the customers going in to shop don't wear masks and pass by the small congested space where people must wait before and after their pharmacy appointment. Police cars in the area, which is only a few hundred meters from the city police station park in the back of the mall where there is no traffic, drink coffee, and chat, basically doing nothing on the public dime. Meanwhile there is a blue stripe right wing flag hanging on the wall in front of the police HQ.