Storeowners Cautious As COVID Mandates End

Jeff Green | Mar 23, 2022

Grocery store owners in the region are treating the end of the mask and distancing mandates as another COVID pivot, rather than the end of the pandemic.

They are not selling off their supply of masks at bargain prices in response to the end of masking mandates in their establishments.

“We have a supply of N-95 masks coming in,” said Gordon Dean of Mike Dean's Local Grocer, which has a store in Sharbot Lake.

Dean said that he will not be telling his staff, or his customers, whether they should wear a mask in his store or not.

“We will follow Health Unit rules, just as we have done throughout the pandemic. We followed the rules before the pandemic, and will follow them after the pandemic.”

What the meant on Monday, the 21st, the first day in post-mask mandate Ontario, was about 75% of staff and customers at all three Mike Dean's Ontario stores (Winchester, Bourget, and Sharbot Lake) were wearing masks.

“I expect it will stay like that for a while, and masking will slowly drop off unless there is another wave of COVID coming,” he said. “We can quickly make any changes that the Province, or the Local Public Health, bring in, we have learned how to do that over the last two years.”

Clint Reid, at Reid’s Foodland, is taking the same approach as other retailers.

When contacted on Tuesday, he said “I would say that about 90% of our customers are still wearing masks, and almost as many of our staff. I’m not sure how long it will last, but for now people are still being cautious.

Chad Van Camp at Verona Hardware pegged the ratio at 70% masked, 30% unmasked, and said that “people are continuing to keep a good distance between themselves and others”

Gordon Dean, Clint Reid, and Chad Van Camp all said they will continue to be wearing a mask when in public areas of their stores for the time being.

“I don’t know when that will change,” said Clint Reid, “but it will change eventually. I think we are waiting to see what happens over the next 6 weeks or so.”

Supply chain issues and pricing concerns, are a bigger day to day concern for all three retailers that we talk to than mask mandates.

“We have about an 80% fill rate from suppliers now, and you never know what items will be back ordered from week to week, and that has been an issue that has persisted and will persist,” said Gordon Dean. But pricing is going to continue to be a big issue for us, and for our customers, for a long time to come. I don't think we've seen anything yet. And the price of fuel plays into everything, for us and for our customers.”

Supply issues are less of a concern for Clint Reid since his store is affiliated with Sobey’s, a national chain, but pricing is another story.

“The price increases are hard to get used to, for us and for our customers,” said Reid, “especially when it hits staples like pasta and bread. But pricing is tight for everyone, and with profit margins already being very thin, there is not much that anyone can do about that,” said Clint.

At Verona Hardware, some of the supply issues have been addressed in recent months, and business continues to be strong, although it is different than it has been during the pandemic.

“We are seeing less customers but they are spending more,” he said.

He said he might be seeing a bump from newly arriving full time residents who have arrived.

“We are selling more appliances than we usually do at this time of year,” he said.