Will more business owners put a mask mandate in their store?

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Masks aren’t only a hot accessory; they’re also a hot topic, and during Tuesday’s press conference with Mayor Steve Allender, he encouraged businesses to put a mask mandate in effect.

The owner of the Shirt Shack, Mike Miles, says at this time he will not be putting a mask mandate in his store, but he’s always looking at it.

“The store is not full of people all the time. So you know most of the time it’s a one on one, one or two people that come in together something like that that are coming in. The distancing is always there,” says Miles.

At The Spice and Tea Exchange, the manager says she doesn’t believe a mask mandate would benefit their store.

“Ninety percent of our business is literally the smells. So you come in here for the smells. That is what makes us, us. So I don’t believe that we will follow that. However, if someone comes in and they would like me to put a mask on if they feel comfortable with it, then I will do that for the comfort of our guest,” says the manager of The Spice and Tea Exchange, Katey Riley.

Some businesses do have a mask mandate in effect, like the Alex Johnson Mercantile. And if customers don’t have a mask when they come into the store, they provide them with one.

“We’ve got a lot of visitors in my little store being next to the historic Hotel Alex Johnson. So I knew that folks from Florida, California, were coming to visit the hills. We’re wide open for that because that’s our job, we’re hospitality, and we love it. But for my confidence level and everybody’s safety level in my little intimate store, I knew it was the right way to go to require masks,” says the owner of the Alex Johnson Mercantile, Jennifer Johnson.

Johnson says their mask requirement works well in her store, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Copyright 2020 KEVN. All rights reserved.