SC should have had mask rule, restaurateurs say as COVID-19 takes toll on business
Some Columbia-area restaurant owners, including a member of the governor’s task force that advised how South Carolina should reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, say the Palmetto State should have instituted a statewide mask requirement earlier this summer when businesses were starting to reopen.
Bobby Williams, chairman of the S.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association and the CEO of Lizard’s Thicket, said in retrospect a statewide order would have been better for business.
“From the latest information at that time, we didn’t even think about (pushing for a statewide mask requirement),” said Williams, a member of S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster’s task force on reopening. Williams’ association encouraged the governor to reopen businesses in May. “But now, in hindsight, I think it would have made a difference.”
In May, Accelerate SC — a group that included business people, health experts and political leaders — issued a number of recommendations, which did not include a statewide mask ordinance. To this day, McMaster has resisted issuing a comprehensive statewide order, but he did issue a limited requirement in July that made it mandatory for people to wear masks while in certain businesses and state government buildings.
The Lizard’s Thicket CEO said he lost customers who complained about having to wear masks inside his restaurants before McMaster mandated that all customers must wear them inside the establishments in late July. Williams said some customers seemed “offended” that he was requiring his employees to wear masks.
“We ended up policing these masks, and it pitted us against these customers,” Williams said. “We were doing the right thing. ....We lost customers over this.”
Williams’ regret on the state not having issued a mask rule was first reported by the Post and Courier.
McMaster’s office did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
While Williams experienced significant backlash from customers, Eddie Wales, the owner of Motor Supply Co., said the comments at his restaurant have been few and far in between.
“There were some smart comments in the beginning,” Wales said. “We’re really fortunate that our customers are intelligent and responsible.”
Despite support from his customers, the months of restrictions due to the pandemic have taken the largest toll on his business, Wales said.
Currently, restaurants are only allowed to operate at 50% capacity, which means that establishments can only do about half of the business they were doing pre-COVID-19, Wales said. That dip in profits can be unsustainable for some restaurants, he added.
“No restaurants are going to be able to survive at 50%. It will eventually catch up to all of us,” Wales said. “Dine in restaurants can only do this for so long.”
Mask orders have proven to be an effective way to slow or limit the spread of the coronavirus, both within the state of South Carolina and nationwide, Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesperson Laura Renwick said.
About 40% of South Carolinians live in a jurisdiction with some sort of mask requirement, according to DHEC. According to the agency’s analysis, areas with those requirements have seen a 44.2% greater decrease in the total number of cases within five weeks of passing the ordinance.
“If we started earlier, we could have been getting out of this earlier,” Wales said. “It should have been the smart, responsible thing to do from the beginning.”
Steve Cook, the owner of Saluda’s, said he’s been impressed by how many people have complied with the city of Columbia’s mask order. He believes that it has given consumers more assurance.
“It does take the guesswork out for every employee and every guest,” Cook said. “It gives the consumers more confidence to go out, have dinner, shop and everything.”
“I need people to be confident that they can come out and venture into the city of Columbia in this specific circumstance,” he added.
