BURLINGTON — Two weeks after the city’s indoor mask mandate expired, businesses are letting their customers decide whether to don face coverings as a precaution against Covid-19.
While some Burlington businesses are still requiring employees to wear masks, few if any are compelling all customers to follow suit. Some tell customers that masks are encouraged, while others still require or request them for unvaccinated patrons.
Citing a decline in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, city councilors declined to extend the city’s indoor mask mandate at their Feb. 22 meeting, allowing the measure to sunset March 3.
Promulgated on Dec. 1, 2021, the mask mandate was the city’s second after councilors dropped a stricter set of rules in June. The latter ordinance made an exception for certain spaces where everyone present had demonstrated they were fully vaccinated.
For many businesses, the latest policy change came as a relief. Waning compliance with the mandate was one reason why some businesses wanted the mandate to end, said Kelly Devine, executive director of the Burlington Business Association.
“It was becoming harder to enforce,” Devine said. “People were ready to let it go.”
“It’s been a weight lifted off for our staff not having to enforce that,” said Lilly Sharp, an assistant manager at the Lake Champlain Chocolates store on Church Street.
When the mandate was in effect, businesses encountered only a few customers who refused to heed the rule, a number of owners and managers told VTDigger. But now, about half their customers go maskless.
Of the half that are still wearing masks, some managers wonder whether those customers are doing so out of consideration for others, rather than personal comfort.
“People are very excited to be free of (masks), but I’ve found that our customers are very mindful,” said Nicole Vacherot, who works at Slate, a Church Street home decor and furnishings store. “They’ll wear them if they see other people wearing them.”
In the same way, some store owners and managers say they’re keeping masks on to soothe anxious patrons.
“I’m having my staff wear masks out of respect for customers who come in and want to wear them,” said Trena Isley, owner of Tradewinds Imports.
Across Church Street at Danforth Pewter, Julie Hancy echoed Isley’s sentiment, and placed a sign that read “masks appreciated” on the shop’s door. But Hancy said those steps aren’t a store policy — other employees can bare their face or take the sign down while manning the store if they wish, the manager said.
Danforth required masks in late 2021 even before Burlington’s second mask mandate went into effect. When councilors declined to renew that ordinance, Hancy wasn’t initially behind them.
“At first it felt too early,” Hancy said. “But I think now people are doing what they need to do.”
Sharp, the Lake Champlain Chocolates manager, said her shop likely will require employees to wear masks until the summer, though any decision to remove face coverings would probably depend on whether all workers want to take them off.
Even for establishments that don’t require them, wearing masks at work is not an all-or-nothing decision, some businesses say.
Warren Zabby, a co-owner at Stone Soup on College Street, said some of his employees will shed their masks while preparing food before the eatery opens, but put them back on when customer traffic picks up around lunch.
At Whim Boutique, manager Molly Laughlin said customers will remove their masks while trying on clothes.
“It’s easier to see how an outfit looks on you with your full face,” Laughlin said.
None of the businesses who spoke to VTDigger said the mandate or its termination had a noticeable effect on their sales. But at Lake Champlain Chocolates, Sharp said the change was still palpable.
“It’s changed the atmosphere of the store more than it’s changed sales,” she said.
