Wegmans Requiring All Workers To Mask Up, Customers 'Encouraged'

PARSIPPANY, NJ — You may have seen more people masking up in the grocery store lately. But all Wegmans stores will now require it for some.

As of Tuesday evening, Wegmans Food Markets began requiring all employees to wear masks in stores. The company "strongly encouraged" customers to do so after reviewing guidance for the Centers for Disease Control and state and local health departments.

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The CDC determined almost all of New Jersey — every county except Warren — has "substantial" or "high" community transmission. The data is based on numerical benchmarks for positivity rates and case rates. As a result, the agency recommends that people in those counties wear face masks again in indoor, public settings — regardless of vaccination status.

Wegmans's New Jersey locations are in Bridgewater, Cherry Hill, Parsippany, Manalapan, Montvale, Mt. Laurel, Ocean Township, Princeton and Woodbridge. But regardless of a community's COVID transmission, the store will require employees to wear masks and urge customers to do so.

Most businesses in public settings around the nation have not returned to mask requirements for customers, according to AARP. The organization compiled a list of how the country's largest retailers have handled mask policies.

New Jersey reported at least 1,100 new cases in each of the past two days after not reaching the benchmark since early May. COVID hospitalizations in the Garden State increased from 289 on June 25 to 598 as of Wednesday afternoon. New Jersey has 23 COVID deaths in the past two days — its first days of double-digit fatalities since mid-June.

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