This Is Us
Why Wearing Masks Makes Some of My Customers So Uncomfortable
Thoughts on White privilege from a retailer
We opened the bookstore to the public a week ago last Thursday. We’re asking a few things of customers, including that they wear masks. It feels like a lot to ask my employees to expose themselves to aerosol droplets from people who come to our town from all over, especially when they’re also summoning grace and patience to handle a somewhat grouchy and unusually demanding public. (We are all a little grouchy, aren’t we?)
I have had one person actually yell at me (“Oh, it’s FINE, I’m LEAVING YOUR STORE ANYWAY!”) and a surprising number of others just walk right past our sign and into our store without masks. When this happens, I put on my friendliest smile and say in my brightest, least threatening voice, “Hi! Welcome! Thanks for coming in today! We are asking everyone in the store to wear masks. Do you need one? We have some, and we’re happy to share.”
I am getting really good at smizing. Thank you very much, Tyra.
Some folks respond to this cheerfully, gratefully grabbing a mask from my little box of disposables. But most are prickly and don’t smile back at me and may even roll their eyes at their companions and sigh and say, “Do you want to stay?”…
