As mask-wearing becomes optional, stores and customers adapt to patchwork of policy

A Vancouver liquor store manager has changed her maskpolicyfrom "mandatory"to "highly recommended"after staff reported an increase in aggressive confrontations with customers who refused to wear them over the weekend.

Barb Whyteinitially kept the store's mandatory mask policy in place, butdecided to change it Monday because of added pressure on employees sinceB.C. lifted its mandateJuly 1.

"Without the backup of a mandatory [mandate], it's just not worth the fight,"said Whyte, who manages two liquor stores in Vancouver, including Bimini'sin Kitsilano.

"I personally would have liked to have it mandatory a little bit longer."

Down the street atKitsilano'sIn Again Fashion, owner Brooke Floydfeels comfortable with the lifted mandate and no longer wears a mask while working at the consignment store. Shewon't be asking customers to wear masks.

"I'm not wearing a mask. I've been fully vaccinated so I have no problem with it, with anybody that comes in here," she said.

But some of her staff feel differently, which iswhy sheposted a note atthe entrance asking customers who don't want to wear a maskto inquire with staff first.

"I left it up to the employees," said Floyd."I left a note for them saying it's up to you to decide if you'd like them to wear the mask."

Moe Suzuki works atLa RuotaPizza, where masks are mandatory only for staff.She's noticed most customers have continued to wear a mask, but not all of them.

"I feel a little uncomfortable," she said."[I got] used to everyone wearing a mask."

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry suggested on June 29 that people should still wear masks in some indoor situations once the mandate had been lifted.

"It is important for us to continue to wear masks in those indoor settings where we're around people we don't know and when we're not fully protected [by vaccines]," Henry said during a news conference.

She addedthatsome people would feel comfortable continuing to wear masks and their choice should be respected.

The World Health Organization also urged people to continue wearing masks as it discussed the spread of the more transmissible Delta variant during a June 25 news conference.