Shoppers, Store Owners In Robbinsdale React To Statewide Mask Mandate
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- With Minnesota's mask mandate officially in full swing -- people no longer have the option to forgo a mask indoors in public.
WCCO's Erin Hassanzadeh went to Robbinsdale to talk with shoppers and store owners about the impact this new rule could have.
In Robbinsdale Saturday, nearly everyone shopping or dining out wore the same accessory.
"I just think it's easy you have to wear a mask if you go into a store. It's not hard," one shopper said.
"For the most part everyone's been pretty good," Steve Carlyle, owner of Wicked Wort Brewing said.
Carlyle says mask use was mixed among his customers and staff before the mandate.
"I guess we had a couple people upset cause masks weren't being worn at the beginning and they were still pretty lax until yesterday and then today was all masked up," Carlyle explained.
He's hoping Minnesota's mask mandate could bring some customers in from the sidelines, those who have been worried to come out.
"It may help a little bit," Carlyle added.
Bill Kurth owns Golden Age Design.
"We strongly encouraged it but we weren't going to frown upon people if they chose not to," Kurth explained. "To a degree, it takes pressure off cause its like whether people like it or not now we're all banding together for the same thing."
WCCO-TV asked shoppers what they would do if they entered a business where people weren't wearing masks.
"I would probably just move on with my day. I don't like to police people," shopper Jase Sorenson said.
You can report violations to local law enforcement or file a complaint against a business on the MDH website. But many realize businesses will play a role in enforcement.
WCCO-TV asked shop owners what they would do if someone refused to wear a mask.
"It would be if you're not going to listen to my rules you're outta here," Carlyle said. "So that's the way it is and you would get a no trespassing on ya and then if you came back the police would come."
"I have no issues with talking to someone that comes into a place like, hey we understand you might have a different point of view, a different mindset on what's happening but please just respect what's happening," Kurth said.
But based on what they've seen so far, they say they don't expect it to be a problem.
"It would literally be one out of every 30 people that would come into the shop that didn't have one," Kurth added.