Edeka branch introduces one-hour mask requirement: "Small step in the right direction"
Created: 04/29/2022, 15:42
By: Stella Henrich
Edeka branch in NRW scores with customers with one hour mask requirement.
From seven to eight a.m. from Monday to Saturday, customers can now shop safely and undisturbed.
North Rhine-Westphalia/ Munich - For almost a month now, customers have been allowed to shop nationwide again without mouth and nose protection.
In many branches, there is no longer any compulsion to wear a mask.
Although some retail chains recommend their customers to wear a mask.
A branch of the grocer Edeka has come up with something special for its customers.
At Edeka Endt in Mönchengladbach, seniors, the chronically ill and customers with physical disabilities can now go shopping with a mask every day except Sundays from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. without having to worry about meeting customers without a mask.
This is indicated by a large sign at the entrance to the branch.
A post on Twitter quickly made the rounds on the Internet - with mostly positive reactions.
“All shops should make their customers wear masks at all times, there is no other way,” says one user.
"I could well imagine that the period of time could be extended a little," says another user.
And Petra tweets, "It's a small step in the right direction, but it's not enough."
Mask requirement: Edeka branch saves customers from crowds in the shop
Despite the praise on social media, Edeka Endt is relaxed.
"Oh, we've actually always done that," said a store employee to
t-online.
Already at the beginning of the pandemic, certain risk groups were given priority in the store early in the morning to spare them the crowds in the shop.
When the mask requirement in supermarkets was lifted in NRW at the beginning of April, the retailer opted for the new regulation between 7 and 8.
"A lot of older people go shopping at that time anyway, so that fits in very well," says the employee.
There are no problems with customers who do not want to comply with the regulation: "It works quite well here."
Mask requirement: Many customers criticize the end of wearing
In a recent survey of retailers, according to the Bavarian Trade Association (HBE), over 50 percent say that their customers criticize the end of the mask requirement.
Only around seven percent of the retail companies surveyed are currently making use of their domiciliary rights and requiring customers to wear a mask.
A third asks their customers to do so.