When businesses don't comply with a mask mandate

[Rorey]

I'm kind of looking for advice.

A couple of nights ago my daughter went to a Kroger store. She's got numerous health issues, so she tries to do any necessary shopping when stores aren't busy. While she was there, she noticed a very verbal store worker had her mask down under her chin. My daughter was almost done shopping, so she was just going to ignore it. Then the worker went down the aisle that my daughter was in and almost shoulder checked her. My daughter said, "Why aren't you wearing a mask?" I wish she hadn't said it, but she did. Instead of the store worker simply pulling up her mask, she started getting confrontational and told my daughter to mind her own business, among other things. One thing led to another, and the store worker said she was going to get security. She came back with the security guard who told my daughter to leave the store. My daughter tried to plead her case, saying that all she did was ask the store worker to comply with the mandate. The security guard said he was sick of people thinking they were the mask police, and got in my daughter's face. She asked him to back up and he said, "No!" She asked to speak to a manager, and the security guard told her that the store worker WAS the manager. She asked for their names, and they both refused to tell her. She had no choice but to leave the store, and then she called me.

Now ordinarily I wouldn't insert myself into a situation that my adult children are in, but because of her health issues, I did. I called the store and asked to speak to the manager. The person who came to the phone wasn't the aforementioned store worker. When I relayed to her everything my daughter had told me, she figured out who I was talking about and said it was her night manager and said she would address it. I ended the conversation so she could do that, and then realized that I hadn't left a phone number, so I called back and left one with the service desk. I never got a call back. I ended up speaking to yet another manager the next day to ask him if he would make sure the security footage was preserved, and left a detailed account of the incident which my daughter wrote.

To cut a long story short, I'm still pretty mad because I just don't think they took any of this seriously enough. That second manager said it would take a little bit of time to investigate. I'm not really understanding how it could take very long to look at the security footage so he could see that the worker wasn't wearing a mask and that the security guard got in my daughter's face.

I've been shopping at that store for decades. and so has my daughter. Now my daughter thinks she'll feel awkward about going into that store in fear that the rude store worker and the security guard will give her a bad time. She's already got a lot of anxiety because of her health issues, and also because she's a victim of domestic violence.

So, are we making too big of a deal out of this? I wish my daughter had done what I do when I encounter someone without a mask. I just make an obvious point of doing the social distancing thing to sort of convey that they're an ass without my actually saying any words. But my daughter spoke.

I'm irritated that this is still on my mind two days after it happened. I should have been sleeping for an hour already, but I haven't been able to get my mind clear enough to drift off.