Chamber CEO believes more stores will ask shoppers to wear masks

Walmart is set to join the list of stores that require customers to wear masks, and John Hopkins believes the roster will continue to grow.

In fact, the chief executive officer of the Regina and District Chamber of Commerce thinks stores asking shoppers to put on masks could encourage people to hit the stores again.

“For some, they’ll be, ‘You can’t force me to do this,’ but for some, it will be (the thought that), ‘It’s much safer now, so I might go whereas I might not have gone or shopped online or something like that,’ ” Hopkins said during a conversation on Tuesday’s Greg Morgan Morning Show.

“I think it’ll be helpful in the long run.”

Starting Wednesday, all Walmart stores in Canada will require shoppers to wear masks. Other stores already have put that policy in place — and Hopkins said businesses have the right to do so as they look to protect their clientele and employees from COVID-19.

On the other hand, the policy has prompted some people to stop frequenting those stores.

“For some of (those individuals), the challenge might be that it’s hard to get masks and so some people are frustrated by that or they don’t have (masks),” Hopkins said. “I think it’ll become more and more of a norm until we actually have a vaccine or the numbers start to drop considerably.”

A number of stores in Regina have closed their doors due to COVID-19, hurt by a lack of business caused by the shutdown of the province’s economy earlier in the pandemic. Hopkins admitted he was alarmed by those closures.

“(We’re) very, very concerned, but (it’s) not surprising given the fact that some of these stores have not had customers for three months and they’ve been shuttered for three months,” he said. “It’d be very, very difficult for a lot of people to not have any revenue whatsoever for three months and still make a go of it.

“Hopefully we don’t see too many of them, but (we’re) not surprised.”