Statewide Mask Mandate Effective July 25
Today Governor Walz announced
Executive Order 20-81. This order requires face coverings in indoor spaces and public buildings including retail stores, and in similar outdoor settings where social distancing is not possible. This mandate will go into effect on July 25.
Signage will be required at retail stores. Retailers will be required to make a reasonable effort to educate non-compliant customers. Retailers will be required to deal with a non-compliant customers in a manner similar to how they would deal with any other non-compliant customers relative to store policy.
Any retailer or other impacted party that blatantly disregards the order will be subject to penalties including up to a $1,000 fine or by imprisonment for not more than 90 days.
Exemptions to the mask mandate include: children under 2 who must never wear masks due to risk of suffocation, children 2-5 are not required to wear face coverings, people with medical or health conditions, strenuous work, and more. (Retailers are not required to verify health conditions.)
Local orders that exceed the state order are not preempted, but an analysis by MnRA shows a majority of local masking requirements are superseded by the state order.
In summary, retailers are required to:
- Ensure workers and customers are masked.
- Update COVID-19 preparedness plans to reflect the masking requirement.
- Treat non-compliant customers as you would any other customer violating a store policy.
- Post signage indicating masking is required.
Minnesota Retailers Association Statement on Statewide Masking Executive Order
We appreciate Governor Walz’s approach and direct outreach on his statewide face covering order. This order impacts all retailers, many of which already have a similar store policy in place or are subject to a local masking requirement.
We know from seeing orders in other states when retailers are expected to be the enforcer of mask orders it can be dangerous for retail employees. Minnesota’s approach leads with a strong expectation of compliance and education but stops short of making your neighborhood retail worker responsible for denying service to non-compliant customers. Stores will deal with non-compliant customers in the same way they deal with a customer violating any other store policy.
The Governor puts an expectation in place through signage and “reasonable notification” language. Ultimately Minnesotans are asked and expected to follow the order and we know retailers and their employees will do their very best to help customers understand the order.
We continue to appreciate dialogue with the Governor, Commissioner Grove and others in the administration on how to protect workers and Minnesotans shopping in their community stores while promoting essential economic activity to keep the State moving forward. We are hopeful a masking mandate is balanced with increases in occupancy at stores as the Governor has suggested.
We hope this order also encourages important uniformity across the state. Consistent with how we feel about labor laws and other regulations, a statewide, uniform approach would be far better for consumers, employees and businesses than community-by-community patchworks that fail to recognize mobility and how Minnesotans shop and work today. While the Governor’s order does not explicitly preempt local orders, many local masking requirements in place today are supersede by State action.
To continue down a path to recovery we need the shopping public to feel comfortable visiting their favorite stores. Our research shows that the first four months of the pandemic has been difficult on a majority of retailers. In addition to 20% to 70% sales losses, COVID-19 has cost the average Minnesota small business retailer between $5,000 and $50,000 in store modifications, technology changes, cleaning supplies, and signage.
