Cayce, West Columbia Businesses Feel Out New Normal Without Mask Mandates

Posted 12/9/21

In October and November, for a second time, mask mandates came to an end in West Columbia and Cayce. The requirements for face coverings in buildings open to the public were brought back after public …

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Cayce, West Columbia Businesses Feel Out New Normal Without Mask Mandates

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In October and November, for a second time, mask mandates came to an end in West Columbia and Cayce. The requirements for face coverings in buildings open to the public were brought back after public pleas from Lexington Medical Center that their beds were becoming dangerously full with COVID-19 patients.

For now, at least, that issue has subsided. Lexington Medical last reported its COVID-19 occupancy on Oct. 29. At that time, the hospital said it had 17 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, with 10 in the ICU. On Sept. 10, the week West Columbia and Cayce enacted their renewed mandates, Lexington Medical reported 158 COVID-19 patients hospitalized with 49 in the ICU.

“I know our citizens wanted it,” Cayce Mayor Elise Partin told the Chronicle. "Our citizens were telling us — not necessarily this most recent time, they weren’t as vocal about it. But the hospital was.”

Those mandates are now in the past, with West Columbia’s lapsing on Oct. 10 and Cayce’s following on Nov. 10, and local business owners are looking to get back to normal, or closer to it.

Mask mandates remain a hot-button issue — one business the Chronicle reached out to denied our interview request because of how many opinions were swirling around the issue — but the ones who did talk didn’t report many problems with the mandate.

WECO Bottle and Biergarten, which opened in West Columbia just ahead of the pandemic in December 2019 and became known for pandemic-safe outdoor spaces and strict mask enforcement early in the pandemic, relaxed its stringency on face coverings during the second mandate.

“We put our signs back up,” said owner Phill Blair. “The staff was all wearing masks. Most people were wearing them,  I mean as much as they ever were. We just didn’t make it as big an issue the second time because we had been screamed at enough the first time. So we just made our own set of rules and everybody seemed fine with it.”

Last month, WECO brought back indoor bar seating for the first time since the pandemic, which Blair said will help when the weather turns colder this winter. But except for when the temperatures have dropped especially low, he said they haven’t had much trouble accommodating customers outside, especially with the addition of heaters on the covered patio.

Margaret Causey, owner of the Old Mill Antique Mall in West Columbia, said her store didn’t see much of an impact as far as sales during the second round of the mandate. 

One difficulty she encountered during the most recent mandate was that people who didn’t want to wear a mask were more adamant about it than they were the first time around.

After West Columbia’s first mask mandate, the Old Mill extended its requirement by a couple weeks past that, less because of its customers than where it gets its inventory.

“A lot of dealers that are older and have at-risk things,” Causey said. “We actually lost one dealer to COVID. And a couple of my employees have some of the underlying issues and stuff. So we extended it, just you know, on our right to begin with.”

The Old Mill doesn’t currently require face coverings.

Levi Wright, co-owner of Cayce’s State of the Art Gallery, also said it was hard to pinpoint a specific impact that the mandate had on business as they opened about a month before the pandemic in 2020.

He said it’s easier to do private pottery demonstrations in the back now that it’s gone, with people seeming more comfortable without masks, and these demonstrations are one of his most reliable revenue sources. 

As far as masks go now, Wright just does what makes the customer feel most comfortable.

“If I see that they come in and they put on a mask, a lot of times I’ll walk back and put a mask on and then come back up and greet them,” he said. “If they come in and they don’t have a mask on I don’t want to go put on a mask and make them feel like they aren’t following the rules.“

Hawa Lukulai, owner of the Messie’s Closet clothing boutique in West Columbia, said her customers were largely respectful of her and the mandate.

“It wasn’t really an issue,” she said. “It wasn’t something where I felt like I had to be a disciplinarian and no wants to be in that position with their customers.”

west columbia mask mandate, cayce business, lexington county covid-19, sc recovery

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