Abuse of Yorkshire supermarket staff by mask refusers part of worrying trend: Andrew Vine

The staff member was glad of the support, and after a short, heated exchange in which the three of us told the group to either put masks on or leave the shop, they vanished in a hurry – and with a final torrent of abuse and V-signs – when I got my phone out and called the police on 101.

The officer I spoke to was sympathetic. But without it being said explicitly, we both knew that the overwhelming likelihood is that nothing more will come of it, even though officers would call at the shop and their visit will be a reassurance.

The police have more than enough on their plates to spend much time pursuing what is, despite its unpleasantness, an essentially low-level incident.

Except it’s doesn’t feel low-level to the supermarket worker involved, who was clearly shaken. That’s no surprise. Having three people shouting and swearing at you is unnerving. Nobody should have to put up with that when doing their job.

The store manager told me it’s far from the first time her colleagues have been faced with abuse over asking people to wear masks, and there is always the undercurrent of worry that it might end in an assault, especially if somebody is drunk or on drugs.

There’s a dilemma for staff like these when faced with customers who won’t follow the rules and turn nasty when challenged, which the manager spelt out. Do they call 999, which will bring an immediate police response? No, because it isn’t a real emergency, and might divert officers from an incident that is.

So they either report it on 101 when the culprits are long gone and difficult to identify or trace, or more likely they don’t bother, chalking it up as just a bad day at work.

It’s placing an unfair burden on retail staff to police what are public health requirements. They have no sanction on rule-breakers within stores except to ask them to comply and in the case of a minority that is leading to conflicts staff are not equipped to handle.

Not all supermarkets have security staff on the doors to prevent anyone without a legitimate reason for not wearing a mask from entering and most smaller shops have nobody screening customers.

We’re reliant on people doing the right thing to keep themselves and others safe, obeying the rules and behaving responsibly.

For most of us, that’s enough. But I’m seeing more people simply not bothering. There’s a convenience store close to where I live where it seems hardly anyone wears masks, their warped reasoning being that because they’re in and out within a couple of minutes, it doesn’t matter.

One of the staff I know pretty well says that she’s given up asking customers to put one on, because it’s too much hassle. She just doesn’t want endless arguments, or abuse, and I can’t blame her. That’s way above her minimum-wage pay grade.

Part of the problem is the length of time this virus has been with us. Some of the watchfulness about avoiding it has worn off, as has the collective spirit that we’re all in this together and only concerted action by everybody will get us through.

Witness the roads and the parks during this current lockdown. Last spring, they were deserted. Now on weekends, they’re almost as busy as if coronavirus didn’t exist.

Witness too the number of house parties and other illegal gatherings the police are breaking up on a regular basis, far more than during the lockdowns of last year.

The other issue is that the success of the vaccination programme – a matter for national rejoicing – is breeding in at least some people a degree of complacency.

That reared its head during my supermarket altercation, with the 
woman involved asserting that she’d had a jab and therefore posed no risk. Whether true or not – and I didn’t believe her – she should have worn a mask anyway.

There’s a recognition of this potentially dangerous combination of lockdown fatigue and complacency in the Government’s urgings to not slacken off.

Its current advertising campaign featuring close-up shots of people in oxygen masks asking if we’re all doing enough to beat the virus is hard-hitting, and rightly so.

But it needs to push the message that we’re not yet out of the woods even harder, because a legion of retail staff out there could tell Ministers that it isn’t being listened to by increasing numbers of people.

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