Winco now on my coronavirus boycott list

Winco, at least its Denton store, which nearly got boycotted by me last summer, now is officially on boycott, at least for now. Saturday, a multigenerational party of masklessness came in the store no more than a minute before me. (They appeared to be grandparents, their adult daughter and her daughter.) I went to customer service and told them. Their PA announcement about "please wear a mask" was at no more volume than conversational level. I am pretty sure my semi-shout at them from the other end of the same aisle as them, even through a double mask, was more likely heard by them. Surely they saw me staring at them. They did nothing. So, I contacted the clerk who manages the self-checkout line. She basically gave a nudge of "didn't you hear the PA?" Nobody went after this party. So I left. Winco has been tagged and messaged on Twitter, and posted and messaged on Facebook.)

I may be accused of stereotyping, even as the White population of Denton trends moderately more Democratic, but they looked likely to be Trump Train riders.

The Dallas Snooze said last week in an above-the-fold P1 headline that we're likely to have 90,000 more people die in the next month. Per Fauci, that's our 9/11 a day for another full month.

And, since Winco is employee-owned, and likes to brag out it, especially if other people join me in boycotting, they're cutting their own throat by being lackadaisical.

Winco has responded via Twitter messenger. Dialogue is:

Winco:

Good afternoon, Thank you for reaching out and bringing this to our attention! Is there any chance you recall the approximate time you were in yesterday? We can follow up with local management to ensure the policy is being monitored and to check if the individual(s) stated a medical exemption, where allowed by applicable mandates. Thank you!

Me:

Approximately 2 pm Saturday. Given that it was FIVE PEOPLE I highly doubt that there was a medical exemption cited for all five. And, to be REALLY HONEST, I doubt anybody was asked for anything in the first place. You need to fix this.

Winco:

Thank you so much! We will get this over to local management to be reviewed right away. Please do not hesitate to alert a member of management if you notice something like this on a future visit. This will allow for them to approach the individuals to remind them of the policy and to check if a medical exemption has been stated. Wearing a protective face covering is one of the tools to combat the spread and we still highly encourage each person to individually do their part by maintaining distance as well. Have a great rest of your weekend!

My follow-up:

This is largely corporate PR bullshit. Kroger did it last summer over #KrogerAndy, but, it wasn’t a local Kroger. I think, over other reasons, I boycotted Kroger for a visit or two, but that was it.

This? 

C’mon.

Per my first response? The only medical condition “infecting” the whole family was the psychological one that could be called “terminal arrogance,” or per social media, “privilege.” They appeared to be grandparents, their adult daughter and her daughter. I may be accused of stereotyping, even as the White population of Denton trends moderately more Democratic, but they looked likely to be Trump Train riders.

Their second response basically ignored other aspects of my first response. Employee attitude in general seemed semi-lackadaisical. I went to customer service and told them. Their PA announcement about "please wear a mask" was at no more volume than conversational level. I am pretty sure my semi-shout at them from the other end of the same aisle as them, even through a double mask, was more likely heard by them. Surely they saw me staring at them. They did nothing. So, I contacted the clerk who manages the self-checkout line. She basically gave a nudge of "didn't you hear the PA?" Nobody went after this party. So I left.

And there you are.

Ironically, I had upped my shopping at Winco while in the short-term boycott of Kroger, as I noted, in also talking about more local boycotts of Walmart (still on after six months) and Tom Thumb (ended last time after three-plus months but will start again if it gets slipshod again).