Members of a COVID cult.
That’s what an angry anti-masker called Jackie and Rich Gericke and their mask-wearing customers as he stormed through their Hot Springs natural-foods store recently.
“He put on a mask, although he didn’t wear it properly,” Jackie Gericke says. “And he came in shouting: ‘You’re all in the COVID cult! This is just a COVID cult! It’s all a big lie!”
That was one of the more theatrical performances by anti-maskers once Earth Goods Natural Foods opened up again after months of limiting customer service to drive-up purchases and deliveries. Customers were allowed in, but only with masks.
Which is when the theatrical performing began, for a minority of customers.
Most customers were fine with wearing the masks. Many were grateful that they could shop for things they wanted and needed but also feel safe. Protected. Secure.
“Most people were fine. They just wore the masks. They understood,” Jackie Gericke says. “But with the others, it was just consistently bad behavior.”
Over masks, and over private property owners exercising private-property rights in a way that they believed helped keep them and their customers safe.
Anti-maskers resented the idea and showed it in a variety of unfriendly ways.
“Some people would sneak in,” Jackie says. “And they would act like surly teenagers when they were asked to either wear a mask or leave.”
Pulling his shirt over his face didn’t work
Some of the anti-maskers were newcomers to town. Others were customers that had been stopping and shopping at the store since it opened 24 years ago.
“One person was so angry he pulled his shirt over his face,” Jackie says. “My husband said, ‘No that doesn’t work, here’s a mask.’ And the person was so mad he threw his stuff on the counter, pushed between me and an 81-year-old woman so he could get to the door and go out and slam it.”
All over a mask, and the requirement from a couple of business owners that people wear them while shopping in their business.
For a few minutes.
Did I mention this is a private business? On private property? And the private owners are asking for a certain type of behavior, for their safety and the safety of others?
It seems like it should be a little thing, putting on a nose-and-mouth covering for a few minutes while inside. A little, safe thing. A way to slow the spread of COVID-19, protect their customers, and protect themselves.
And it seems like something people who care about property rights — private property rights — would be willing to do for private-property owners, while on their property, while in their store.
Rather than turning it into theater.
So enough of the drama already
And it’s theater that Jackie and Rich Gericke are tired of. Worn out by. Simply not willing to tolerate anymore.
They’ve closed their store, at least through the end of the year, after 24 years in business in Hot Springs. It’s not all because of COVID and the theater it has inspired in the mask-resistant people in their customer base.
They were interested in selling the store anyway and cutting back on business obligations. They also have a rental business and other things to do.
“We were approaching retirement anyway. And the last several months have been especially quite difficult,” Jackie says.
They could have closed last spring when COVID cases were spreading across the nation and businesses were shutting down or restricting service. But health-food stores were considered essential services, and they felt an essential obligation to their customers.
“We were committed to helping our customers. So we changed our business model,” Jackie says. “We offered curbside service. We could deliver at home. We could bring things out to you and show you options.
“We went on that way for months, and probably 80 percent of the people were happy,” she says. “Some still wanted to come in and shop, and they were angry that they couldn’t.”
After the rally, they tried again
The Gerickes closed during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. And when they opened, they allowed customers inside, but only with masks.
“And it was just kind of incident after incident,” Jackie says. “We try not to remember all those stories, but just in people behaving horribly. We actually decided to close. Like I said, the store is for sale.”
So they did close recently, with the idea that they’ll probably try again after the first of the year. They had items on sale. And on the last day, business was brisk. One long-time customer who hates the masks ended up coming in anyway.
“We put on the sign 25 percent off, closing. And he was always a thrifty shopper and couldn’t stand it, so he came in,” Jackie says.
He was the guy who yelled about the “COVID cult.”
“He got his stuff, and he was still yelling as I rang it up,” Jackie says. “And he was yelling at other people, too.”
The Gerickes have heard from another business owner in Hot Springs. They shared an email from the owner describing the scenario with a woman who said she had a disability that prevented her from wearing a mask. The woman reminded the shop owner of the Americans with Disabilities Act and sort of implied the potential for legal action.
The shop owner also included her polite response to the woman, pointing out that information posted on the door to the shop noted that people who don’t have masks or can’t wear them can make an appointment to shop, without a mask, when other shoppers aren’t in the store. They are asked to use hand sanitizer.
That seems like a shop owner going out of her way to be accommodating, while also protecting her other customers, many of whom, she said, are older and at a higher risk for complications from COVID-19.
Protecting them isn’t cult-like behavior. It’s just good business. It’s also a pretty good way to slow the spread of a potentially deadly virus.