Ricky Schroder won’t be buying silver spoons at Costco anytime soon.
The former child actor is calling for a boycott of the big-box retailer due to its requirement that shoppers wear face masks in the store despite recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removing mask requirements for vaccinated people in most situations. Schroder posted a video in which he questioned one Costco employee, a supervisor identified as “Jason,” about the store’s policy.
“In the state of California, in the county of Los Angeles, and Costco, there has been no change in the mask policy,” the supervisor said after an unmasked Schroder asked why he wasn’t allowed to enter the store.
MANY STATES AND CITIES ARE WARY OF LIFTING MASK MANDATES DESPITE CDC BLESSING
After Schroder countered that “nationwide Costco has said you don’t need to wear masks,” Jason replied, “Actually, that’s not accurate.”
“What is accurate is that Costco always goes above and beyond when following the law, and the mandate in California has not changed,” he replied, adding that mid-June appears to be a target date for lifting the mandate.
Turning the camera back toward himself, Schroder declared, “I’m getting my refund. I’m getting my refund from Costco. I suggest everybody in California get their refund from Costco. Give up your membership to Costco until they remove this,” adding the authorities who imposed the mask polices “have destroyed our economy, they’re destroying our culture, [and] they’re destroying our state.”
After receiving his refund, Schroder reiterates calls for a boycott and ends the video.
On Friday, Costco lifted the requirement that vaccinated shoppers wear masks in states and localities that dropped mask mandates. The policy of mandating masks remained unchanged in areas with local mask requirements.
After the CDC revised its mask guidance, many Costco competitors dropped mask requirements for vaccinated customers. Walmart and Trader Joe’s are among the retailers dropping the mandate in accordance with the CDC’s recommendations, and other retailers, including Target and Walgreens, are reviewing the updated guidelines.
Other retailers have been more cautious. Starbucks and Whole Foods are among the companies keeping their mask mandates in place without immediate plans to revisit their policies.
While some Democratic field operatives cheered the move away from mask mandates, other left-leaning states approached the change with more caution.
“We have received the newly revised guidance from the CDC regarding mask-wearing and social distancing for those with vaccinations and are reviewing them in consultation with [state health commissioner] Dr. Zucker and our partners and health experts in surrounding states,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California also announced plans to keep mask mandates in place as their governors review the new guidelines.
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Eleven states nationwide never imposed mask mandates, and more than a dozen have lifted existing requirements as the COVID-19 pandemic has ebbed in recent weeks throughout the United States. There have been approximately 32.9 million cases of COVID-19 reported in the U.S. since the outset of the pandemic, and more than 585,000 deaths have been attributed to the disease nationwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
Representatives for Costco did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
