BC Grocery Store hires a security guard as anti-mask hostility grows

A grocery store in Kootenays has hired a security guard for the first time since they opened 45 years ago, but that’s not due to an increase in shoplifting.

Since BC provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry ordered masks to be worn in all indoor public spaces last week, staff at the Kootenay Co-op in Nelson said they saw an increase in people they refuse to wear a mask and become combative when told to do so. to do so.

The cooperative made masks mandatory for staff in June in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, but let customers decide if they wanted to wear one.

“When we made the masks mandatory at the time, we started hearing from a very vocal group of our members and customers who were very frustrated about it,” CEO Ari Derfel told Global News.

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Many people have expressed their opposition in kind and constructive ways, he added, but others have been confrontational and aggressive.

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“Calling personnel and executives names such as Nazis, fascists and equating what we are doing with horrific human rights atrocities,” he said.

When the provincial order on mandatory masks was announced last week, Derfel said they had to prevent people from entering the store if they refused to wear a mask while shopping.

“As soon as it became mandatory, a number of people started getting louder, more vocal, more aggressive again, often harassing our cashiers, harassing our greetings at the front of the store, trying to make their way into the store when we asked them to wear a mask and sometimes to act in a threatening and aggressive way. “

He said some of the staff were brought to tears by aggressive customers.

Peter Vella, a salute to the Co-op, told Global News that many clients tell him their rights are being violated and challenge him about the science behind whether the masks work.

“I’ve had people straight in the face and now that we have another person here acting as a security guard – a real security guard – I’ve leaned on them for some help,” he said.

When Global News was filming inside the store on Tuesday, a man refused to wear his mask and was eventually escorted out.

Drefel said he recognizes that everyone has a right to their own opinion, but that they don’t have the right to take it from their own staff or be offensive.

“I really hope they understand this and choose to be more thoughtful and kind, regardless of their respective opinions,” he said.

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