LOW EXPECTATIONS

Lowe’s Won’t Ask Workers to ‘Put Their Safety at Risk’ by Enforcing Mask Mandate

The home-improvement retailer says it will still ask customers to wear masks, but employees won’t be expected to take the “risk” of trying to enforce the rule.

Just a day after a mask mandate took effect at Lowe’s, the home-improvement retailer announced that it won’t ask employees to enforce the rule with customers. “We will not ask our associates to put their safety at risk by confronting customers about wearing masks, so we are consistently requesting that customers wear masks for the safety of everyone in our stores,” the company said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. The chain has been requiring all employees to wear face masks since May and on Tuesday said signs would be put up at all store entrances telling customers to don masks as well. Lowe’s joined other top retail chains including Walmart, Aldi, Target, CVS, and Walgreens in announcing a mask mandate. But while face masks have become a political flash point during the coronavirus pandemic, store employees have repeatedly fallen victim to attacks by angry customers. A security guard in Flint, Michigan, was fatally shot after trying to enforce a mask mandate, and a Target worker in California was left with a broken arm from such an encounter, amid a spate of similar incidents.