Winn Dixie Reverses Course

The Washington Post reports:

Southeastern announced at the end of last week that Winn-Dixie stores would not be requiring masks from customers because it did not want to cause undue friction between customers and employees.

“Our associates have seen that mask mandates are a highly charged issue with our customers. We do not want to put our associates in a position to navigate interpersonal conflict or prohibit customers from shopping in our stores,” Joe Caldwell, director of corporate communications and government affairs for Southeastern Grocers, wrote in an email this past weekend.

However, on Monday afternoon, Southeastern reversed its position, with Caldwell attributing the change to customer feedback. The about-face came a little more than an hour after Trump tweeted a picture of himself in a black mask and called mask-wearing patriotic.

“It had absolutely nothing to do with President Trump’s tweet,” Caldwell said.