Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has slammed supermarkets for not enforcing the wearing of face masks in-store in an interview with Retail Week.

Burnham specifically called out Tesco following complaints he had seen on social media. 

He said: “Tesco comes up a lot. I don’t believe they’ve done enough to enforce face coverings as people enter the stores and they should.”

“Given that they employ security, and we can’t put police on the doors of supermarkets, surely that is something they can do as part of their role as a corporate citizen? I am asking those big retailers in Greater Manchester to do it.”

Tesco said it did “encourage” all customers wear face coverings in store.

A spokesperson for the grocer said: “The safety of our colleagues and customers is our top priority and we continue to follow all Government guidance in responding to Covid-19. We encourage all customers to follow our social distancing measures, including wearing face coverings when shopping with us. We have packs of face coverings available for purchase near the front of our stores for any customers who have forgotten them.”

The Mayor said supermarkets needed to go further and that security guards should ban people from entering stores if they do not wear face coverings.

Although failure to wear a face mask, which became mandatory to wear in stores in England from July 24, carries a £100 on-the-spot fine, it remains unclear who actually polices this or issues fines with many retailers considering that a matter for the police.

Sainsbury’s told Retail Week when face coverings became mandatory in July that it would not challenge customers without a mask, while Asda said that ultimately “it is the responsibility of the relevant authorities to police and enforce the new rules”. 

However, Burnham said he wanted to “challenge that mindset”. “Any organisation that runs a premises has the ability to control entry to those premises. We need more from them.”

The Mayor of Greater Manchester argued that consumer confidence was being dampened by a lack of compliance on face coverings and social distancing and urged supermarkets to do more.

He said: “Business confidence comes from that safety culture right now. All organisations will benefit from high levels of compliance on face coverings and distancing to build the customer confidence that gets people using public transport or supermarkets.”

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