KANSAS CITY, Mo. — While Kansas City, Missouri, business owners and managers understand many people aren't happy with the city's renewed indoor mask mandate, they are working to help combat the spread of COVID-19 by following the guidelines put in place.
Regardless of where customers stand on the topic, restaurateurs like Terrance Ramsey hope to keep the peace because it was not always easy during the first mandate.
“I had to call the police on people before because they wanted to come in and not wear a mask," Ramsey, Peachtree Cafeteria general manager, said. "This was during the heart of the pandemic."
However, with a second mask mandate in effect starting on Monday, Ramsey said he does not know what to expect.
“This time around it might be a little bit more defiance just because people have been without a mask for a while,” Ramsey said.
However, he said he hopes customers understand he and his staff are trying to do their job and keep the lines moving.
“Some people aren’t concerned about their safety, but if not their safety, they should be concerned about other people’s safety,” Ramsey said.
The new mask mandate came as a surprise to Level One Game Shop's Shawn Davison, who had planned to drop his store’s own mask policy this weekend.
“With the mandate coming down, it shows things are kind of where they are right now, and so we want to continue to keep our friends and family as safe as possible per the guidelines,” Davison said.
Now, he's coming up with ways to make shopping easy and comfortable for all.
“People are unhappy about it. We sympathize. It’s not really what they want," Davison said. "It’s not really what we want either. We don’t want to be in the position, and again we’ve kept masks on hand, we’ve kept it as painless as possible."
Ramsey and Davison both said they understand the customers' frustration, but as business owners, their goal is to help the city combat the spread of COVID-19 the best way they can.
“We still have a lot of elderly that come into our restaurant and we want to keep our community safe,” Ramsey said.
Davison said much the same.
“This is to keep people safe," he said, "and if that means they are not comfortable shopping here, I understand their feelings and we are happy to try and work something out."
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