Don’t expect to see the hydroalcoholic gel disappear at the entrance to all the shops or the plexiglass in front of the checkouts. At the Promod store for example in Valence, these protections remain, but Valérie, the manager, will no longer wear the mask: “We are delighted, and we will be happy to welcome customers with our smiles. It’s very important to us. The smile, the contact, we find each other. It’s really good.”
At the Graine de Fille shop, Nadia, saleswoman, will drop the mask without hesitation: “I’m suffocating with this mask. I can’t breathe. I’m happy to have a little more freedom. My colleagues, I think, are going to keep the mask on a lot.”
Free to keep the mask or remove it
In companies, employees are free to wear the mask or not. Marina, sales assistant at Pimkie, will continue to wear it: “for protection, when we have people…I prefer to keep this barrier gesture to which we have been accustomed for 2 years. And then we see that the contaminations are starting to rise again, so we don’t know if it’s good to lift restrictions.”
Not sure that customers remove the mask all at once. Marie runs the LEM Nymphélia beauty institute in Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence: “We talked about it with them. In the age group below 40, they are ready to take off the mask. People over 50/55 are more reluctant. They are afraid and what I I also heard it is “as if by chance, we take off the mask just before the elections” and that does not reassure. But Marie hopes to find the 5 to 10% of clients she has not seen at the institute since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic.
The government advises people who are frail, elderly or have chronic pathologies, to continue to protect themselves with the mask in closed places and large gatherings.