{"id":273041,"date":"2020-07-22T14:41:05","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T18:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=273041"},"modified":"2020-10-26T02:33:14","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T06:33:14","slug":"following-public-backlash-winn-dixie-says-face-masks-will-now-be-required","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/following-public-backlash-winn-dixie-says-face-masks-will-now-be-required\/","title":{"rendered":"Following public backlash, Winn-Dixie says face masks will now be required"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #008080;\"><strong>Another company to boycott!<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Last week, the company\u2019s decision to \u201cstrongly encourage\u201d masks, was met with intense public backlash, and apparently Southeastern Grocers heard it.<\/p>\n<p>After initially announcing that it\u00a0won\u2019t force customers to wear masks\u00a0at its stores, Winn-Dixie\u2019s parent company is now reversing course.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement released Monday, Southeastern Grocers, Inc. said that beginning next week, all Winn-Dixie and Harvey grocery stores will require face masks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe majority of our stores are under either a local or state government mandate, and given the continued rise of positive COVID cases in our communities across the Southeast, beginning Monday, July 27, we will be requiring masks to be worn by customers to help reduce the spread of the disease,\u201d said Joe Caldwell, Director of Corporate Communications and Government Affairs in the statement.\u00a0Caldwell added that enforcement of these rules should not fall on his &#8220;heroic frontline associates,&#8221; but rather local and federal authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, the company\u2019s decision to \u201cstrongly encourage\u201d masks was met with intense public backlash, and apparently Southeastern Grocers heard it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCoverage from various outlets has driven meaningful dialogue around this issue,\u201d said Public Relations Account Supervisor Tiffany Valla Hutto in an email. \u201cBecause we\u2019re always listening to feedback from our customers and communities, we\u2019ve evolved our position and hope to more clearly emphasize what\u2019s always been most important to our company: the safety of our customers, associates and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the past few weeks, companies like\u00a0Publix, Walmart and Sam&#8217;s Club, CVS, and Target have all announced face covering rules, which apply even in cities and counties that don\u2019t have mask mandates.<\/p>\n<p>Customers at Pinellas and Hillsborough County businesses are already required to wear a face mask where social distancing is not possible, so this announcement won\u2019t really change much for locals, but maybe it changes your opinion about the company.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/food-drink\/food-features\/article\/21140712\/following-public-backlash-winndixie-says-face-masks-will-now-be-required?fbclid=IwAR1k2qS7AyiB0HTQgRMDJTpLrxF_L8kvSEoPIle1lr95jnvCLLqmshac8e0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">https:\/\/www.cltampa.com\/food-drink\/food-features\/article\/21140712\/following-public-backlash-winndixie-says-face-masks-will-now-be-required?fbclid=IwAR1k2qS7AyiB0HTQgRMDJTpLrxF_L8kvSEoPIle1lr95jnvCLLqmshac8e0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: Another company to boycott! &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":280967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/fa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}