BOISE, Idaho — No shoes, no shirt, no mask, no service? Some businesses, like Janjou Patisserie in Boise, are adding no masks to the requirements that customers must meet before patronizing their business.
“We've been abused verbally, more than once I can tell you that, almost physically abused as well, but that's not going to break us,” said owner Moshit Mizrachi.
The bakery started requiring everyone to wear masks when they realized more than 50% of their customers were coming into the establishment without wearing one.
“Because we are around people all the time and we don’t know where the people went or came from and so we were worried about the safety of our own staff and we said if we want to stay open we need to require people to wear masks so we can stay safe,” Mizrachi said. “It's a neighborly thing to do.”
When it comes to response Mizrachi says many aren't ‘masking’ the way they feel.
“I was told to shut up, somebody tried to hit my husband, somebody gave me the finger, it's not pleasant but it's not going to break us,” Mizrachi said.
She adds she's just trying to do what she thinks is right and it hasn't been all bad. Some customers have appreciated their efforts, even commenting that the mandatory mask policy gives them comfort.
“As a business owner, especially in the food business, I need to wear that mask all day long, I’m asking my customers to wear that mask for the 10 minutes they're in my store ordering, what’s the big deal?” Mizrachi said. “I have older customers, who are in that risk group, who am I to take that risk for them, I need to protect all of my customers.”
KTVB reached out to Central District Health to find out if the agency could issue an order requiring everyone within a county to wear a mask while in public and if they were considering such an order.
In a statement, CDH said, “At this time we are not in active discussion regarding implementing a mandatory public face-covering order, however, it's a measure that CDH may consider as we move forward in this response. We are monitoring data each day and will revisit the current order per data on July 13, 2020. If we were to consider a mandatory order to wear face coverings in public, it could be as an amendment to our current order or it could be written as a separate order.”
KTVB also reached to Boise, Meridian, Caldwell, Nampa, and Eagle to find out where each city stood on the issue. All of them said there are no plans as of right now to issue a citywide order to make wearing a mask in public mandatory. Many of those cities also added, they're working closely with the health districts and believe in personal responsibility and want to encourage people to do what is right for them.