Country’s largest retailers want mask mandate

A group representing 50 major retailers wants you to wear masks inside their businesses. They just don’t want to be the ones tell you to do it, so they’ve asked every governor in the country to issue a mandate.

There are people who wear a mask wherever they go in public.

“It’s not that hard to just put it on,” said Ismael Carrasquillo of Cape Coral.

And there are those who refuse.

“I believe that the people that don’t want to wear a mask shouldn’t have to wear a mask,” said Alex Rivero of Cape Coral.

But retailers are now calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis and the country’s 49 other governors to mandate masks.

“Retailers have been encouraging or requiring customers to wear masks in stores. But unless government mandates it, there’s a level of confusion and ambiguity that is leading to confrontations that are problematic for retailers and their employees,” said Brian Dodge, president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents retailers like Publix, Walmart and Target.

Retailers can mandate customers to wear masks without the blessing of governors. Costco does, but most do not.

Dodge said they would prefer the states set the expectations.

“Now we’re in a position where they’re [retailers] forced to act like law enforcement and that’s just problematic,” Dodge said.

Rivero said he won’t shop where he is forced to wear a mask.

“When they start taking rights away from you, then what’s the next in line?”

There are least 50 major retailers in the Retail Industry Leaders Association calling for a mask mandate.

WINK News reached out to Publix for comment, but they have yet to issue one.