Businesses across Washington have been preparing for the implementation on Tuesday of a statewide order for businesses to require customers to wear masks while inside their stores.

Many storefronts began taking down earlier signs recommending customers wear masks, replacing them with signs informing the public that masks are now mandatory, including Walker’s Furniture and Mattress’ Moses Lake branch.

“We’ve got welcome signs requesting people to wear a mask, but now the difference is: no mask, no service,” said Tim Byers, general manager for the Spokane-based chain. “We’ve sent an email out to store managers and employees telling them that we need to enforce that, with the exception of people who have a medical issue where they can’t wear a mask.”

There are a number of exceptions to the order announced by Gov. Jay Inslee last Thursday, including for those with a medical condition that could be exacerbated by wearing a mask. Children under the age of 5 are also not required to wear a mask, while children under the age of 2 are discouraged from wearing facial coverings, Inslee had previously said.

The order for businesses to require customers to wear masks came in response to a spike in cases across the state, largely driven by increased numbers in Eastern Washington, according to state officials, and came hot on the heels of a statewide order for all people to wear masks while out in public.

The order is similar to one that has been in place in Yakima County, which has seen some of the largest increases in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.

Heather Mason, owner and operator of Moses Lake coffee shop Mason’s Place, who has members of her household who are at high risk of COVID-19, said that she understands the push for widespread use of masks amid the second surge of the pandemic. While more customers are wearing masks in recent days, she said that the percentage is still rather low.

“I don’t want my employees exposed to what’s happening around us,” Mason said. “I would really hope that people would be respectful of what’s happening around us and help me not put my employees at risk, in that sense.”

But Mason added, being asked to enforce masking guidelines themselves, which law enforcement agencies throughout the state have indicated they would not do, creates a potential for conflict that she and other business owners would rather avoid.

“On the other side of that, now, having to in some way police these rules that were put in place, that is not something I should need to ask my employees to do,” she said. “For me as the business owner, the idea of turning away business for my livelihood because of something put into place, that’s just really difficult.”

For customers who refuse to wear a mask and don’t claim to have a valid medical reason for doing so, police can be called to trespass the customer if they refuse to leave or push past employees, said Moses Lake Police Chief Kevin Fuhr.

“Because the businesses themselves can be fined for violations, they’re going to be prudent about people having their masks on,” Fuhr said. “And that’s going to create conflict, and if businesses call us about people refusing to wear masks and refusing to leave, we’re going to trespass them.”

Many business people are hoping to avoid those confrontations, including by offering customers complimentary masks if they forgot them, as local health food store Settler’s Country Market will be doing, said operations manager Danette Preston. And if a customer comes in without a mask and declines the one offered by Settler’s, store employees will assume the customer has a medical condition, Preston added.

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.