And They’re Off…

Mike Lawson

So just like that, the CDC has announced that people who are fully vaccinated can take off their masks in most situations. Overall, this is really great news. Who doesn’t want to ditch the mask and get back to “normal?” You’re hopefully about to get really busy again in person. I love that my band is gigging again, that the Summer NAMM show is going to be a thing this year, and that my year-plus long break from excessive traveling may be coming to an end as 2021 plays on.

Most music retailers are small, mom and pop shops, and it has been a hell of a year to stay in business and juggle the needs of the many versus the whines of the few, while staying afloat. I get that. The problem now? You will have a hard time enforcing honesty and decency amongst the anti-vaccine folks: the lars; the dishonest people who will know darn well they are not vaccinated and walk around on the “dishonor” system they adhere to, risking everyone around them; the ones sharing disinformation about vaccines; the ones with a million excuses; or the ones with fake cards from some official sounding agency… some even have fake vaccine cards.

I chose to get the vaccine, but the folks I know who did not were running around without the masks in defiance of store policies before the CDC announcement during the entire past year, and they aren’t going to suddenly follow the rules now.

I wish it wasn’t this way, but the fact is, some people just suck. They feel entitled, and don’t mind telling you. I also wish the side-eye I gave by reflex from behind my mask at the anti-maskers making a scene or flouting the rules was going away. We know who these people are, who will and won’t obey your store’s rules for masking, especially now, and who didn’t follow the rules before. We know who pitched the fits, quoted memes, or spouted dumb talking points. Or my favorites – the ones who liken proof of vaccination as some kind of “Nazi Germany your papers please” drama.

Some of them you’ve probably had as customers for a very long time. If you know your customers well, I suspect you can think of some of those who would gleefully come into the store unmasked without the vaccine, versus those you can think of that you know would never dream of not following your store’s rules and entering unmasked while not vaccinated. You’ve probably run into them in other stores during this horrible, no good, very bad year or so. So, you know who they are.

Given your own vaccinated status, and your store’s size, number of people your fire marshal allows inside, whether or not your staff is vaccinated, not to mention the kinds of products you specialize in, you still have a lot on your plate of decisions to feast upon.

During this past year, the decision to mask when I went into a store was not only for my safety and those around me should I have possibly been carrying this wretched virus, but it was also simply a matter of respect. Nobody forced me to use a particular private grocery store, or warehouse club, or another retailer. If the store said, “masks on please” and had signs throughout the store and made announcements every 20 minutes to remind you of the policy, and somebody still waltzed around the join like they had a right, then that just made them a jerk in my eyes. They were not freedom fighters. They weren’t not a super patriot defending their rights, they were a jerk for entering a private business and making demands they themselves wouldn’t entertain.

This is about being a decent, respectful person. No shoes, no shirt, no service. You’ve a right to say, “no masks” or “masks required.” Your customers have a right to say, “Ok, they don’t want my business because I’m not getting a vaccination or wearing a mask” and shop elsewhere. And they have a right to say, “Oh, good! I can feel safer shopping here.” If you’re in a highly-vaccinated area, this becomes less and less of an issue.

You’re within your right to say, “Vaccinated people may enter unmasked.” You’re within your right to say, “No masks required of anyone for any reason.” As the customer, I can make an informed decision about whether or not I want to walk in that door. Let me tell you, I am ready to walk in that door again and gawk at guitars and amps and toys I can use in my return to performing live shows again. I’ll be looking to see what signs a store may have up, and then follow what they ask of me before I come into their business and decide at the point if I want to shop with them that day.

I don’t have an easy answer for this. I just know that as a working musician who is pumped about gigging again and wishes beyond reason that people would all do the right thing by their neighbors as well as themselves, that this wasn’t an issue. You make the rules that are right for your store, let your customers know them, and hope for the best. I don’t envy your position now, because it is even harder to deal with in some respects. At least we knew prior to the CDC masks-off announcement who we were dealing with when people waltzed in without them.

Now, we really won’t be able to tell.