Originally published 2020-07-14.
In early July 2020 a short video from inside a Costco warehouse spread widely online. A shopper with her mask hanging from one ear refused to put it over her nose and mouth, declined to step outside to talk, and sat down on the floor of the store while staff waited for a manager. US media reported that the clip was filmed at a Costco in Hillsboro, Oregon, though some outlets guessed at Las Vegas because of the account that posted it. The scene became one of the best-known of many mask disputes filmed in American shops that summer.
This article looks at what the video shows, what rules Costco had in place, why private stores could require masks, and what the science said about face coverings at the time and since.
What the video shows
The clip, about two minutes long, was posted on Twitter on 2 July 2020 and had tens of thousands of views within days. An employee calmly tells the woman that face coverings are store policy and offers to continue the conversation outside. She refuses, asks to speak to someone more senior, and lowers herself onto the floor. Staff then guide her to the side, away from other shoppers, where a manager and another employee speak with her.
Reports quoted her as saying she was an American with constitutional rights. Some coverage said she briefly mentioned a medical condition and then dropped the point. The video ends before the outcome, so it is not known whether she left, bought anything or was escorted out.
New ‘Costco Karen’ Sighting —throws 3-yr-old type tantrum— sits on the floor and won’t leave because “this is America..” —tries to lie about medical condition then changes her mind 🤦🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/GLDmPDnGar
— Only in Vegas ➐ ➐ ➐ (@OnlyInLVNV) July 2, 2020
Costco's face-covering rule
Costco began requiring members to wear face coverings in its US warehouses in May 2020, one of the first large retailers to do so nationwide. Its COVID-19 page, as cited by Fox affiliate KTVU, asked members and guests to cover mouth and nose at all times inside, with exemptions for children under two and for people who could not wear a mask because of a medical condition. The company also stressed that a mask was no replacement for keeping a distance from other shoppers.
Oregon had made face coverings mandatory in indoor public spaces statewide from 1 July 2020, the day before the clip was posted. So if the location reports are correct, the store's rule matched state law at the time.
Can a private store make you wear a mask?
The most common argument in these videos was that a mask requirement breaches constitutional rights. In the United States, the Constitution mainly limits what the government can do, not what a private business can ask of its customers. Shops can set conditions of entry, such as "no shirt, no shoes, no service", as long as they do not discriminate on protected grounds like race or religion and they make reasonable adjustments where disability law requires it.
That is why the usual response to a refusal was the one seen here: an offer of service outside, curbside pick-up or online shopping, and, if the customer still refused, a request to leave. Remaining on the premises after being asked to go can amount to trespass under state law. Courts later heard many challenges to government mask mandates, with mixed results, but store policies rested on the ordinary rights of property owners.
A summer of filmed confrontations
The Costco clip was one of many. In late June 2020 a video from a newly opened Trader Joe's in North Hollywood, California, showed a shopper angrily accusing others of shaming her over her mask. In early July another clip, reportedly from a Target in Scottsdale, Arizona, showed a woman pulling down a display of face masks. Both were shared by the former basketball player Rex Chapman, whose account posted many viral videos that year; the originals are no longer available.
Opening day at Trader Joe’s in North Hollywood, Ca.
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) June 27, 2020
Karen is mad she was mask shamed... pic.twitter.com/pF3Zgj3w2E
(This post is no longer available on X.)
This woman in Scottsdale, Arizona was super upset with Target for selling face masks. So upset in fact, that she attacked their display....pic.twitter.com/ye9LiDz0JH
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) July 5, 2020
(This post is no longer available on X.)
Videos like these spread because they are dramatic and short, and because they let viewers feel part of a wider argument. They also have a cost. The people in them are private individuals filmed on a bad day, often identified, mocked and sometimes harassed online. Retail workers, meanwhile, were asked to enforce health rules they had not written, often without training, and some faced abuse or worse.
What the science said about masks
When the video appeared, COVID-19 had killed more than half a million people worldwide and well over 120,000 in the United States, and there was still no vaccine. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recommended cloth face coverings in public settings since April 2020, and the World Health Organization broadened its advice on masks in June 2020.
The reasoning was that people can spread the virus before they have symptoms, and that a covering over the nose and mouth reduces the droplets and aerosols a person releases, especially indoors. Later research added nuance. Well-fitted respirators such as N95 or FFP2 masks filter far better than loose cloth, and large trials and reviews have argued over how much community masking changed infection rates overall. Very few health bodies, however, claimed that wearing a mask in a shop for half an hour harmed a healthy adult.
A mask worn under the chin or hanging from one ear, as in the Costco clip, gives little protection to anyone. If wearing one is genuinely difficult for health reasons, the sensible step is to talk to a doctor and ask the store about alternatives.
What the episode tells us
Looking back, the Costco video is less about one shopper than about a moment when an ordinary health rule became a symbol in a much larger political fight. A few practical lessons hold up well beyond the pandemic:
- Store policies are conditions of entry, not constitutional questions.
- Calm staff, an offer of alternatives and a clear request to leave usually defuse these situations better than an argument.
- Before sharing a clip of a stranger, it is worth asking whether it adds anything beyond embarrassment.
Sources: KTVU, 6 July 2020; Scary Mommy, 5 July 2020; video by @OnlyInLVNV on X.
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