So they are considering mask mandates again. Anyone really surprised? Are so many people actually going to comply again??? I sure hope not!
Remember where you were able to shop without a mask and be sure to support those places as they supported you.
I am very thankful for the TJX stores and the Real Canadian Superstores. I’ve never had to wear masks there, ever. There are a few other gems but certainly they are not consistent across the Country so you really have to work to seek them out.
Whatever happens it’s most important that you travel. When you travel you know how other stores operate in other provinces and then you can figure out which managers are just power hungry, making up their own rules, tin pot dictators and put an end to their little reigns. That’s what I was able to do! And I wouldn’t have known unless I had been to other places. That’s why there are travel bans put in place when there are mandates – the dictators don’t want you know know life can be normal and fine and see that happening anywhere.
I’ve always had success going to Winners and Homesense and being able to look at pretty things maskless like it was 2019 no matter what during the “pandemic”.
That is, until I was in New Brunswick and they suddenly insisted that there were special rules here and got their own little security guard to throw out anyone showing their face. This was completely inconsistent with how they were operating just the week before and currently in other provinces. They wouldn’t even take my credit card and tap it for me so that I could buy what I came to get – they just escorted me out.
Thankfully with some work I was able to send an email to TJX and let them know of my surprise and they were able to correct the managers at the TJX stores in New Brunswick and I was able to shop there again! And it didn’t even take long for everything to be resolved! I sent the email below and was so fortunate to talk to someone from TJX that called me to amend this problem. TJX even sent me a $50 gift certificate that I was so happy to accept and bring with me when I attempted to go back to the TJX stores in New Brunswick. They assured me that there were no problems and there were none. Even the little workers they had manning the doors to interrogate people when they walked in were gone. You could just walk in and no one accosted you. No one took my profile to tell other employees that I was there maskless. It was amazing! What a success!
I was so happy that TJX stood by humanity and gave everyone sanity and the pleasure of escaping tyranny by being able to browse and look at pretty things and shop to their hearts content. It certainly has meant a lot to me this whole time. I will always be a very dedicated, thankful and supportive TJX customer and I hope you too find them to be a great ally if these horrible mandates return again. They better not! But at least you can count on a few mainstays in your life.
Below is my letter to TJX and it worked. Thank you Winners, Homesense, and Marshalls for protecting our freedoms and not discriminating and hating your customers.
Please remain maskless this coming winter and beyond if you want to remain maskless. If you aren’t wearing a mask now why would you wear one just because the government tells you to? The absolute nonsensical rules must stop and they only will when you stop complying. Let it be known that there are good businesses that will be there for you and you can shop there! Businesses like TJX and the Real Canadian Superstore or Atlantic Superstore will serve you and if you abandon stores that support mandates and shop at these places instead your money will grow good businesses that shape a healthy and abundant and good future.
My letter to TJX back in January 2022 (We never did get to build that house because it just cost too much but nonetheless I still spend good money at TJX):
Winners (and also Homesense and Marshalls) has been a mainstay for our family’s shopping, particularly in the last 2 years.
I have spent thousands of dollars in these stores and have never been treated disrespectfully, threatened, or told to leave.
Last year I made large purchases: I bought adult winter coats and boots, and I have a family of 5 with adult sized children. For 2022 I was planning on spending thousands more as we are building a 4-bedroom house with a new kitchen, and I was looking forward to buying wool rugs for all the rooms, and many other decor items.
I also buy a lot of good food in Winners/Marshalls/Homesense that one simply cannot buy anywhere else. You offer really healthy and specialty alternatives that I love and I buy regularly. My youngest child’s Christmas stocking was STUFFED with your chickpea noodles, as we don’t eat grains. It was a great find, and she was thrilled! If I kept my receipts I could prove all of my purchases and the hundreds of dollars we spent just this Christmas, inside your stores! My credit card statements prove it.
I was told, and I completely understand that your items cannot be sold online, since your specialty product moves too quickly and is changing all the time. Like the Dollarstore – which is a horrible comparison but similar. That is why they have always accommodated me as they do not sell online with curb-side pickup.
The New Brunswick government tried to implement a horrendous policy by giving food retailers the OPTION to bar people from entering their markets and stores. Thank God there was enormous outrage, even internationally, and the government backtracked (at least for now) on their egregious mandate. I buy some groceries at the TJX stores and many health items like fluoride free toothpaste and organic and keto products. You cannot deny people access for those things. It is blatantly unconstitutional and that is exactly what happened to me!
After two years of me being able to depend on shopping in your stores, I cannot believe that seemingly overnight there is now a security guard that runs back and forth across the street to your three stores, keeping me from entering. Yesterday, I was not even allowed to pay for my items that I had in my cart once I left Winners and went to the Marshalls/Homesense. This store has ALWAYS accommodated me, and treated me with dignity, and like a human being.
The manager at this Winners asked me if I was vaccinated, because I’m exempt from wearing a mask or anything over my face. I have become, by necessity, well-informed of Canadian law in this regard, and in Canadian law, medical information is private. Even the police have to go through onerous procedures to get medical information. A random TJX employee has no authority to ask a customer anything about their medical information. I asked this employee, tongue-in-cheek, if she has herpes. Naturally, she was completely offended and missed the point entirely. I assured her that I was making a point that her health is absolutely none of my business, just as my health (vaccine status and why I do not wear things on my face) is none of her business, or anyone else’s at TJX. Medical information is private – that right is constitutionally protected, and to this date that constitutional right has never been overturned by the Supreme Court.
Maybe you find it curious that I would still want to shop at your store despite the fact that I don’t know everyone’s health status that I might encounter in a TJX store. In spite of any risk to me or my family – risks that we all have assumed when we leave our homes for hundreds and hundreds of years – we still venture out in the world when we don’t like or agree with how people choose to live. We acknowledge that how others live is their life, and they get to choose how best to live it! I don’t go and report them because I might think their choices are sub-optimal. They deserve the dignity of being human!
I honestly thought I would be able to count on your business remaining the accommodating, neutral stronghold you were proving to be over the last two years. It was such a relief to shop somewhere that we could even still try on clothing. Customers can’t even try on bathing suits at Sport Chek. I wonder how any woman is supposed to buy a bathing suit without trying it on. At Winners I was able to be respected and be respectful. Now TJX has made me an enemy and sent guards after me, threatening to call the authorities, and will not allow me in their store!
I asked if I could make my final purchase (this was across the street from this Winners at the Homesense/Marshalls) and they would not allow it. I asked if they would take my payment card and just tap it so that I could get my items – the answer was no! I asked if we could do something where I pay with my phone outside; again, no! There were ZERO accommodations made. The guard said that he would give me his business card if we chatted outside, to which I agreed. He did not give me his card, and no names or cards were provided to me by the managers either.
I was told that there are new rules as of yesterday morning (Jan. 4 2022), however when I asked to see them I was told they would not give me a copy of them to read and examine. I would like to see these new guidelines. They most certainly are not encoded into law, and furthermore they go against the very policies that you have for your stores (https://www.tjx.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/a-message-on-racial-justice.pdf)
TJX thinks they are following the New Brunswick law, when indeed they are NOT. TJX is in fact contravening the Human Rights of this province, which exists to protect me and my family. I made a lot of effort to tout the law-abiding and accommodating policies at TJX stores in the last few years, as it was one the very few places that had admirably stood strong, and not discriminated like other retailers who will most certainly face many lawsuits in the future.
Let me point out just a few sections of New Brunswick’s Human Rights Act that TJX is in contravention of. You can access the entire Act here (https://www.canlii.org/en/nb/laws/stat/rsnb-2011-c-171/latest/rsnb-2011-c-171.html)
Current version: In force since Mar 29 2019
“commercial unit” means a building or other structure or part of a building or other structure that is used or occupied or is intended, arranged or designed to be used or occupied for the manufacture, sale, resale, processing, reprocessing, displaying, storing, handling, garaging or distribution of personal property, or any space that is used or occupied or is intended, arranged or designed to be used or occupied as a separate business or professional unit or office in a building or other structure or in a part of a building or other structure. (établissement commercial)
Prohibited grounds of discrimination
(f) creed or religion,
(h) physical disability,
(i) mental disability,
(o) social condition, and
(p) political belief or activity.
Discrimination in accommodation and services
6(1)No person, directly or indirectly, alone or with another, by himself, herself or itself or by the interposition of another, shall, based on a prohibited ground of discrimination,
(a) deny to any person or class of persons any accommodation, services or facilities available to the public, or
(b) discriminate against any person or class of persons with respect to any accommodation, services or facilities available to the public.
Offences and penalties
25A person commits an offence punishable under Part 2 of the Provincial Offences Procedure Act as a category F offence who violates or fails to comply with 6(1)
I would appreciate contact information for the people to whom I can send a copy of this letter. I would also appreciate it if this letter was sent to anyone who can get a hold of the decent company that was TJX and stand strong like The Real Canadian Superstore / Atlantic Superstore.
I would like an apology, and accommodation so we have a place we can shop for quality essential items. You can be an advocate for humanity as you have been for the last 2 tumultuous years and allow me, and people like me, to shop with dignity like the good and normal people we are. I do NOT interrogate other customers or staff; I am a decent person that likes to shop at TJX stores so that I can have nice things. Your advocacy is what will bring this country together and overcome this blatant governmental abuse. You have the ability because you are a large corporation with a lot of capital and resources, as well as influence. I’m supporting you. Please support me.
Kimberly Neudorf
And they did and continue to do so.
