After months of indecision, the government are now making it mandatory to wear face coverings in shops. But not until a week on Friday 
Where are the officers going to come from to police this?
There are not enough police officers to reduce, or investigate, real crime, yet now they need to be in every shop 
Very few wearing masks in IKEA Birmingham yesterday.
People still aren’t wearing them on public transport. So unfortunately I think many will ignore this, and as you say it can’t be enforced due to insufficient resource.
I can’t wear them anyway on tfl or in shops when introduced. I have had a heart operation last year and I have breathing problems
won’t it be "policed " by the shop owners , employees , door staff ?
March - “You don’t need to wear masks”
April - “You don’t need to wear masks”
May - “You don’t need to wear masks”
Early June - “You don’t need to wear masks”
15/6 - “You must wear a mask on public transport”
July - “You only need to wear a mask on public transport. Please go shopping and support businesses”
24/7 - “You must wear a mask in shops now, we’ve decided it’s risky”
It’s nice to know that Covid-19 plays by the rules so between now and the 24th it’s agreed a cease fire and won’t infect anyone else, the games up on mask day though it’s going to be out in force
The article says staff won’t be expected to enforce the rules, I think the unions pushed for this.
But I’m sure some shops will try to enforce.
should have read the article not just the headline 
Maybe be a case of “no mask, no entry” and if someone kicks off the police get involved?
The fine should hopefully be a deterrent for the majority of people to comply. And I wonder how those who are exempt from wearing a mask will identify themselves?
You’ll get some d*ckheads claiming they have asthma when they don’t just because they’re too selfish to wear a mask.
I’ve not seen a single person wearing a mask when i’ve gone to greggs or morrisons.
Honestly I can see this pushing more shopping online or people holding onto money even more. The exact opposite the government wants.
I’m likley to not bother going out and just ordering alcohol off amazon and eating what I buy from work because I just can’t be bothered.
I can say this as a key worker alot of us are real against alot of the lockdown but we feel that people have spoken for us and we dare not speak out for the outrage it would cause. (We never wore masks at work all the way through)
USDAW are correct on this would cause shopworker abuse, something thats already a problem. (I’m on the distribution part of the unions scope tho)
I’ve really had enough (Had a angry person tell me thats not essential shopping buying beer and a pizza after a 12 hour shift yesterday)
I’m happy because I work in eCommerce so my jobs more secure than ever.
Masks were only made compulsory on public transport on Friday here. I was the only passenger and wore my mask, the drivers still are maskless
I’ve avoided anything except small local shops since March so if they brought compulsory masks in here I’d be more likely to go to the shops in town
Masks have been mandatory in Scotland since the 10th of July - everyone seems to be adhering well to this. Shops don’t seem to be enforcing people who don’t wear one but I’d say 97% of people are wearing them (that I’ve seen).
The Tesco Metro near me is already enforcing a queue for entry, so making sure each person has a mask should be easy. I think most people will comply.
The security guard on the door was mainly dealing with a woman who was utterly trollied and wandering around disrupting the queue and threatening to pee on the wall…
Such medical exemptions are likely to be pretty rare. There will be very few people who are well enough to get around the TFL network, on and off trains, around stations, etc who are also so breathless that they can’t wear a mask. Even those with severe COPD needing long term oxygen can usually tolerate a simple face covering fairly well.
Staff don’t enforce things at the best of times.
How many shops do you see with a no food/drink sign and then people walking around with it?
This is far more political, the videos of American’s fighting people because they are asked to wear them are the extremes, but does someone want to challenge someone for not wearing a mask? And that’s before you get into the people that aren’t wearing them for whatever legitimate reason.
Yeah I don’t get that, if you don’t want to wear a mask shop online its that simple.
It’s worrying for the rise in shopworker abuse it will cause by the minority. (They are underpaid and underappreciated as it is)
Months ago before it all went crazy I remember how I posted in the main corona thread saying how everyone should be wearing masks but was shot down by people claiming that the scientists at Public Health England were trustworthy when saying masks don’t work…
I get abused on a daily basis by patients who don’t want to social distance and the stories I’ve heard from staff who work in the hospital are horrendous
Abuse is the new normal unfortunately
I think mask wearing in shops might become a way of reducing the queues outside.
I received an email from TfL today to say that the passenger capacity on double deckers is increasing from 20 to 30. I assume that they believe that passenger compliance is sufficiently high to allow this.
My anecdotal experience of London buses suggests that compliance has improved recently, and I’d say it’s now at 70-80% (although I’ve also seen barber shops where no one is wearing any form of PPE).
Where are we buying our masks from then? A friend’s mum was making them at the beginning of lockdown but the fits not great so I’m looking for a replacement.