When Gov. J.B. Pritzker eased statewide mask requirements Monday, many businesses in Chicago, where the mask rule remains in place, were still scrambling to figure out how to respond to last week’s updated guidance from federal health officials.
Some businesses worried they would face more pushback from customers who took new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as permission to visit barefaced. Others were wary of prying into customers’ vaccination status.
“There was no warning, and it put us in a position where we had to plan for it immediately,” Julia Steiner, a bookseller at The Book Cellar in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood, said shortly before the governor’s announcement.
After the CDC released its guidance, The Book Cellar posted signs and messages on social media saying masks would be required until further notice. The store wanted to make sure everyone is able to browse, including kids who aren’t yet eligible for the vaccine and those with health conditions who can’t get vaccinated, Steiner said.
“You can’t tell on sight who’s been vaccinated and who hasn’t,” Steiner said.
Pritzker’s order said businesses must ensure all visitors, including customers who are not fully vaccinated, can practice social distancing, “but if maintaining a six-foot social distance will not be possible at all times, encourage those visitors to wear face coverings.” The new rules take effect immediately.
People who are fully vaccinated are still required to wear masks in health care settings, while riding trains, buses, planes or other forms of public transportation, as well as at airports and bus and train stations.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday the city needs more information before changing its rules on masks.
At least one restaurant moved quickly to follow the CDC’s lead. Union Pizzeria, in Evanston, posted on Instagram last week that fully vaccinated guests could enter without a mask if they could show a vaccination card and identification.
Other businesses were hesitant to card customers at the door.
“I think the honor system has to work here,” said Dave Rand, co-founder and CEO of Local Foods, a grocery store in the West Town area.
After the CDC announced its guidance, Local Foods advised employees to remind customers entering without masks that face coverings were still required in Chicago, and that they could choose curbside pickup or delivery if they were unwilling to wear a mask, Rand said.
In the Andersonville neighborhood, Alamo Shoes owner Richard Price said the store has had no problems with mask rules but the current CDC guidelines make for a very gray area. If a customer walks into the store without a mask, employees will ask them to wear one.
“If they refuse, it’s going to get tricky,” Price said. “Maybe we’ll service them in an area where they don’t upset anyone else.”
In Hyde Park, She Fit Studios owner Cheryl Nelson said she was uncomfortable with the idea of announcing someone’s vaccination status to reassure other class participants.
“Are you vaccinated? That’s not a question I want to ask everyone as they come in. We want to make every single person in this studio comfortable,” she said.
On Saturday morning, Nelson tried to convince two customers who said they were vaccinated — and didn’t plan to wear masks per the CDC’s guidance — to wear them because of others in the class. The two customers left, she said.
At cocktail bar The Violet Hour in Wicker Park, general manager Abe Vucekovich said he hoped the city or state would give businesses a way to verify customers’ vaccination status if local rules are relaxed to align with CDC guidance.
“If there’s no way for us to corroborate anybody saying they’re vaccinated or not, then it really doesn’t make any sense (to stop requiring masks),” he said.
The Violet Hour’s customers are used to being asked to play by the rules. The cocktail bar has kept a detailed list of house rules governing customer behavior and attire for the last 14 years, which it recently updated when reopening for indoor service March 24, Vucekovich said.
For now, those rules include customers wearing masks when interacting with staff, while away from their table and while not actively eating or drinking, even if they are vaccinated.
Violet Hour tries to head off any misunderstandings by communicating its rules when people make reservations. Still, some customers have arrived at the bar’s unmarked door on North Damen Avenue believing they didn’t need to wear masks, Vucekovich said.
“There’s just a lot of confusion around this thing that puts a lot of burden on people running businesses, especially restaurants and bars where people are drinking and their judgment is going down,” he said.
Downers Grove-based Classic Cinemas is unlikely to provide separate policies for vaccinated and unvaccinated moviegoers, said CEO Chris Johnson. Masks are required until patrons take a seat, and empty seats are used to keep groups apart.
“Realistically, if you come to any business and you verify at the door that you’re fully vaccinated and you can roam about freely without a mask, and someone else isn’t vaccinated and comes in with a mask on, how do you keep it all straight once they’re in your establishment?” Johnson said. “The answer is, you can’t.”
Ryan Ori, Jocelyn Allison and Mary Ellen Podmolik contributed.
