due to the COVID-19 pandemic, owner Mendy White posted a sign on the door: “No entry without a mask. If you don’t have one, we do.”The policy instantly became a source of conflict.
The very first day the shop reopened, White said a man who entered with his wife lifted his shirt to flash a gun when asked to put on a mask.“I said, ‘Are you intending to shoot me over a mask?’” White said. “And I let it hang there.
He said, ‘Well, I guess we don’t have to be here,’ and he left. But that could have escalated.”The cheerful shop with walls decked in a rainbow assortment of hanging strands of beads had suddenly become a political war ground.