Nation's Largest Retailers Require Customers To Wear Masks

Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Sam's Club & Fred Meyer – And Many Other National Chains – Requiring Mask Use In Stores To Protect Customers & Staff 

Inside the Palmer Fred Meyer, where masks will now be worn. (Photo, Country Journal)

UPDATE SUNDAY, JULY 19TH: 

All of America's 9 top retailers have mandated masks in their stores. These include...

• CVS Drugs

• Walgreens

• Lowe's

• Kroger

• Albertsons (Safeway) 

• Target

• Costco

• Walmart

• Home Depot  

All of the nation's largest retailers have joined Kroger (locally known as "Fred Meyer") in requiring masks. The multiple Fred Meyer stores – scattered throughout Alaska in major urban locations – join Costco in requiring mask use while in the store. 

This week, the National Retail Federation called for a nationwide mask mandate in all stores, stressing the need to protect retail employees from infection.

Lowe's and Home Depot have joined in because these businesses want to keep America's economy open. Many rural and provincial businesses have not done so because rural areas are worried wearing masks is a political statement. However, as the pandemic continues to spiral out of control, scientists and large businesses have become certain that wearing masks is America's last best chance in fighting the virus' spread and save the economy.

Fred Meyer is a part of the vast chain of Kroger stores, which bought the Oregon based chain in 1998. There are Fred Meyers in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Palmer, Wasilla, Eagle River, Soldotna, Juneau and Wasilla. 

Kroger owns 17 different store chains throughout America, including Fred Meyer. Many of Kroger's grocery chains have names we might not be familiar with in Alaska: "City Market," "Dillions," "King Soopers," and "Ralphs" as a few examples.