Iceland under fire over divisive face mask announcement as rules change - Birmingham Live

The Iceland supermarket boss says his staff WON’T force shoppers to wear masks.

The move comes despite new Covid rules being introduced from Tuesday for retail settings.

Richard Walker, the managing director of Iceland, told the Daily Mail: "We fully support the reintroduction of compulsory face masks in shops, however, we won't be asking our store colleagues to police it.

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"Our store teams, alongside all retail workers, have shown heroic efforts in terms of ensuring safety for customers and building back consumer confidence and it's crucial that we stay focused on the long-term recovery of the high street.

"We need to continue to encourage people to shop in stores if they feel comfortable, and I'm hopeful that the latest guidelines won't discourage customers from doing so."

Marco wrote: " Just refuse to serve unmasked customers, without medical exemption. Shops have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for customers."

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But Avro Lanc hit back: "Shops have a responsibility to make profit. If you're scared, go and hide under your duvet. The rest of us intend to live life."

L Whoaps wrote: "So again we have retailers and shops that will have to enforce the customers to wear a mask and with that to being abused verbally. Who is defending those workers? Stop "enforcing" things like we are in 1940s for Christ sake!"

Tezack though said: "My local supermarket still has mask wearing and hand sanitizer.. all the staff are happy about wearing them and so are the customers..... no big deal and I feel safer."

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