Saturday Story Time-COVID

Saturday story time will go back to the time of Covid. (shudder) I think most retail and restaurant people are permanently scarred by this period in time and would like to block it out. It was rough not knowing if you could stay open, how you would make money, and how to deal with a lot of people who took their frustrations out on you.  Just not a good time.

As a health food store we were considered essential so we could stay open. That didn’t mean that people came in and spent money, but we were open. As we were so dead, I’m a sewer, and everyone was looking for a mask, we started to make masks. At this point, I must mention that I do not care what your opinion was of wearing a mask. It was a thing that was happening. I do not know how many masks we made. Many were donated to local hospitals looking for something, anything to give to patients. Many, many more were sold to whoever wanted them and 100% of the sales went to our local food pantry, so about $5000. That’s a lot of masks.

We also required people to wear a mask when shopping in the store. I have had previous heart issues, my daughter was uninsured, it just seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Also, it was the most ‘natural’ thing to do. I’m sure you can guess that we did get pushback from this. After all, we were located in rural Wisconsin. Let’s see: we had someone harass us on Facebook and we had to block her, and then her husband; dealt with a falsely made Google review from someone in Canada who had never been to our store; got yelled at many times, too many to count; someone threw a product at my daughter, luckily they missed; someone tried to hit my daughter; and, finally, someone was refusing to wear a mask and when asked to leave, she refused. My daughter had to call the police on that one. It was really just ridiculous and we were just a small store in a small town.

I hate to have to think about what other people had to go through. We were just trying to do our best with what little information we had. No one was trying to hurt anyone else, just trying to do our best for our customers and ourselves.

This, unfortunately, is not a funny story. I wish it were. My point with sharing is to maybe help people realize that those of us behind the counter are just trying to help you within the constraints around us. No one is out to get you, we just want to help you and do our jobs. Realize that the next time you want to get upset at a server or retail clerk. Are you truly upset at them as a person? Or, are you upset at the situation as a whole? Some things are truly out of our control.

            Until next time,

                        Have a Healthy Day

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