Courtesy / Northeast Media Associates
A poster for the new promotional campaign urges customers to wear face masks and practice courtesy when doing business in Maine.
June 25, 2020
Maine businesses kick off kindness campaign, asking customers for patience, courtesy
File Photo / Maureen Milliken
Melissa Furbush, at Day’s Store in Belgrade Lakes, wears a face mask as she bring out groceries for curbside service. An alliance of Maine businesses is urging customers to be more respectful of mask-wearing requirements.
By William Hall
An alliance of Maine businesses is asking customers to be a little kinder when they patronize stores, restaurants and other establishments throughout the state.
The Retail Association of Maine, Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce and Maine Grocers and Food Producers Association on Thursday kicked off a campaign to encourage courtesy to workers and respect for new practices implemented because of COVID-19.
The “Let’s Be Kind” campaign includes social media visibility, in-store posters throughout the state, and a series of television public service announcements that will start airing July 6, according to a news release.
The campaign’s tagline — “Doing Business Differently Helps Keep Maine Safe” — is intended to remind Mainers that simple adjustments in shopping or dining habits can protect everyone’s health.
The kindness crusade is a reaction to public behavior some Maine businesses say they’ve noticed in recent weeks. As businesses have begun to reopen, customers have increasingly ignored state requirements to wear protective face masks and even harassed employees who attempt to enforce the rules.
Under executive orders by Gov. Janet Mills, employees interacting with the public are required to wear face masks when social distancing isn't possible. The public is required to, also.
“We realize this unprecedented pandemic and stay at home order has been taxing on everyone, and people are anxious to get back to their lives as usual,” said Curtis Picard, president and CEO of the Retail Association of Maine.
“At the same time, practices are changing as retailers and other businesses work to comply with state guidelines and ensure that their employees — including those front-line workers who interact with the public every day — are able to stay as healthy and safe as possible.”
Wearing masks isn’t the only behavior that concerns businesses.
Coffee By Design, which has four coffee shops in the Portland area, has been offering curbside service since public health restrictions went into effect. Now that other restaurants and eateries are starting to resume indoor service, some customers have stood outside Coffee By Design shops and demanded entry.
“Some have been quite irate,” co-founder Mary Allen Lindemann told Mainebiz Thursday. There’s been an increase in the incidents since Memorial Day, she said.
“People are getting impatient. It’s summer, they want things to get back to a normal state, and now they come to the doors and they’re locked," she said.
Lindemann is not quite ready to open the doors, although she expects to in the next week or so. Meanwhile, she’s asking customers to be considerate while her shops complete preparations for providing indoor service during the pandemic.
“If we can’t take care of our people then they can’t do their best job serving customers,” she said.
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Anonymous
July 10, 2020
Wearing a mask during this scary time shows respect for others, simple as that. The folks serving you may be at high-risk of death from this thing, or may be caring for loved ones at home that are high risk. Just because you think you're fine, and there may only be ten people in the store, is a terrible excuse to disrespectful to the people you want to serve you! You need to remember that for those at high risk, every person constitutes a potential serious threat to their health, and those "ten people in the store" are only the ten you see... All day, every day, they're being exposed to people. Give them one less thing to worry about by wearing a mask to show respect for them working during this time.
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