{"id":2350,"date":"2020-06-17T13:06:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T17:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/?p=2350"},"modified":"2025-07-24T14:38:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T18:38:05","slug":"f-you-very-much-for-not-wearing-a-mask-while-you-buy-your-organic-coffee-beans-and-salad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/2020\/f-you-very-much-for-not-wearing-a-mask-while-you-buy-your-organic-coffee-beans-and-salad\/","title":{"rendered":"F*** you very much for not wearing a mask while you buy your organic coffee beans and salad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n F*** you very much for not wearing a mask while you buy your organic coffee beans and salad\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

By Kathy Dobson<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brenna and Carey have been working at a local major chain store for the past three years. Brenna is a fulltime student at Carleton University, but tries to work as many hours each week as possible. Carey works fulltime but wishes she could afford to work less hours each week as she believes every shift increases her odds of catching COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe scariest part about being an essential worker, working in a grocery store during a global pandemic,\u201d says Carey, \u201cis just how many<\/em> people you come into contact with. There must be like a thousand a day that come into my store.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-worker Brenna agrees it is a numbers game. And one that puts them at the mercy of the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“How fast a virus spreads is dependent on two things,\u201d says Brenna. \u201cHow dense the population is, and how dense the population is. That\u2019s something a co-worker of mine said to me the other day that I find both very funny and true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both agree their workplace has been taking steps to try and keep their employees safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery precaution they can take, they do. We\u2019ve masks, plexiglass at the checkouts, gloves and sanitizer. But it might not be enough with how ignorant some people can be,\u201d says Carey. \u201cNo… what scares me the most is that despite what everyone is doing and sacrificing to keep everyone safe, every day I see the same type of almost aggressively ignorant customers come into the store and single handily pose the same risk that a group of 30 people might.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brenna says it is the customers who disregard social distancing, or won\u2019t wear the free face masks offer at the store\u2019s entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re throwing caution out the window and that scares me the most. F*** you very much for not wearing a mask while you buy your organic coffee beans and salad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carey says she hates it when she believes a customer pretends they didn\u2019t hear her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecently a guy tried to walk past me as I stood next to the entrance handing out masks, like I was invisible or something. I stepped forward and said, \u2018Hey! Sir? Excuse me, please?\u2019 And when he finally turned back to look at me, in that moment, I realized he had <\/em>seen me but had decided to actually just ignore me. Then he says, \u2018Naw, I\u2019m good,\u2019 then walks away. I know I can\u2019t kick him in the ass like I want to. Or say, \u2018Yeah, you\u2019re good, but for those of us who work in here every day for up to 10 hours on some days, we aren\u2019t good. We\u2019re stuck breathing in your<\/em> air. So, get back here and put the fucking mask on.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But nope, can\u2019t do. Not if I want to keep working. Well, I actually don\u2019t want to keep working. But I have to. I need the money. Why else would I show up here every day and have to deal with idiots like that, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brenna shares Carey\u2019s frustration over customers who won\u2019t wear a mask, even when one is provided for free by the store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey only have to wear the mask in our store for like\u2026what\u202620 minutes while they\u2019re walking around and then checking out. Do they even have a clue what it\u2019s like to try and breath through a mask for hours every day, especially when pushing a heavy cart or lifting heavy boxes and breathing becomes so hard, you end up gasping a bit for breath?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brenna says she wishes everyone could come and work in a grocery store for even just one day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe then the next time someone politely offers them a free mask, they\u2019d take it and just say thank you. Then put the damn thing on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kathy Dobson Brenna and Carey have been working at a local major chain store for the past three years. Brenna is a fulltime student at Carleton University, but tries to work as many hours each week as possible. Carey works fulltime but wishes she could afford to work less hours each week as she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[45,1],"tags":[82,353],"class_list":["post-2350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-news","tag-community","tag-covid-19"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2352,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350\/revisions\/2352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/align\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}