CEO of Joann Fabric and Craft imposed mask wearing policy across all stores for employees’ sake
Protection of people comes as a priority over profit for this chief executive officer.
Safety Over Sales
That is what Wade Miquelon, CEO of Ohio-based JOANN Fabric and Craft stores, believed when all of their stores across the country have also implemented mask policies, no matter the location is. Prior to its start on Monday, over the weekend Miquelon was aware that this move could possibly anger some customers of their stores. For him, it was only necessary to push this agenda as the pandemic is seeing more cases each day.
And the American fabrics retail chain top head maintained his stance with the decision, which was already being imposed by different establishments from all over the country like in Starbucks and Walmart. According to Miquelon, “This is the right thing to do. So for the very few [minority of people] that don’t want people to comply, I think those are probably customers that we’re willing to lose just because of the situation that we’re in.”
‘Respectful’ Policy
Covering 49 states with over 800 of their retail stores, JOANN Fabric and Craft will be “respectfully” including reminders for their customers an encouragement to wear masks. This will take effect regardless of local government policy on masks.
For Miquelon, this action is to keep their staff safe from people who are being aggressive in refusing to wear masks. Several establishments have experienced hostility from anti-masks shoppers before. The CEO said, “I just don’t want to see an employee get hurt. Our people didn’t sign up for that. They’re just trying to be a good citizen and earn a living.”
Facing the Pandemic
Previously, the company was reported to have produced 90 million masks as the pandemic was just emerging in order to meet dramatic increase in demand for personal protective gears. They claimed that they were pumping efforts to help “bend this COVID curve and play a major role in PPE shortage.” Some of their initiatives include providing Americans with online tutorials of homemade face masks and had even dedicated several classroom spaces for sewing.
On the other hand, the company has also faced immense pressure from employees, which include the quality of the fabrics that were used in producing face masks. They even faced allegations of creating unsafe environment for its workers, with more people are showing up to work after the company was said to position itself as “essential.”