Store workers fear customers who won’t wear masks.

Coverings have taken on a political tone

Last year, Walmart and Kroger asked workers to gently encourage gun-carrying customers to leave their firearms outside. The ill-defined policies put employees in a difficult, even dangerous position, thrusting them onto the front lines of a contentious national debate.

Now it’s happening again. This time the issue is shoppers wearing masks inside grocery stores. While many retail chains recommend the practice to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, so far only one big national retailer — Costco, whose shoppers all pay an annual membership fee — has required it. A few hard-hit states like New York and New Jersey have mandated face coverings in public places, but the patchwork of regulations just muddies the issue.

That’s put retail employees in the unenviable position, once again, of having to decide whether or not to confront customers.

It’s a hot-button issue that’s roiling the nation as President Donald Trump and his supporters push to reopen the economy quickly while epidemiologists and some state governors advocate a slower approach. Making matters worse, the temporary pay increases that some chains launched back in March are starting to expire, while the deadly virus has not.

“People in my store are scared to death to ask people to wear masks,” said Kristine Holtham, 53, a meat-department worker at a Kroger in Lansing, Mich. “It’s like telling them to throw their gun away.”

Holtham was one of several supermarket workers who shared their experiences on a call hosted by the UFCW, the union that represents more than 900,000 grocery workers. One time, Holtham recalled, she asked a male customer to don a mask, which is required in public enclosed spaces in Michigan. The man refused, saying he didn’t “give a damn” about her health.

“That’s the last day I asked anyone to wear one,” she said. “It started out as a safety issue and it’s now a political issue.”