Dartmouth Company Says Everyone Is Welcome After Vaccine Sign Controversy
DARTMOUTH – A local event and party store is clarifying its position on vaccines after a sign caused controversy and heated debate on social media.
On Monday morning, Glow The Event Store posted a sign outside that read “NOT VACCINATED CURBSIDE PICKUP ONLY.” Photos were taken of the sign and quickly circulated on Facebook. Some threatened to essentially boycott the business.
But Dave O’Connor, president of Glow, said the company has no plans of preventing non-vaccinated customers from entering the premises.
“It really wasn’t the intent to say, ‘if you’re not vaccinated, we don’t deal with you,’” said O’Connor.
“We weren’t checking for IDs; we’re not kicking people out.”
O’Connor says the sign caused miscommunication. He wanted to make a statement that vaccines are important, but a small sign only has so much physical room to send a message.
“I really don’t care [if people don’t want to get the vaccine], but what I do care is if we can’t open,” he said.
“We’re a company that is totally dependent on crowds and numbers [so] we’re going to take a stand.”
The controversial signage came out of a place of fear and frustration. Glow relies on big events for much of its business. But right now, with the province still in Phase 4 of reopening, indoor crowds are capped at 150, and outdoors is 250.
Companies like Glow have been relying on the eventual start of Phase 5 when life would go back to a more normal state. However, Phase 5 doesn’t have a set date. The province has said it’s tied to more people getting fully vaccinated.
The uncertainty over Phase 5 has led to clients cancelling events with Glow, including university orientation events.
“We’ve been hurt. We are in the event business, and anyone in the event business was the hardest hit in the industry. We’ve opened, we’ve closed, we’ve opened, we’ve closed,” said O’Connor.
“We’ve actually had some calls and some cancellations again. Now we’re seeing Deja vu all over again, for what we’ve been through the three previous times.”
Glow has since changed their sign to send a “softer” message. The sign now reads, on one side: WE DON’T WANT TO SHUT DOWN AGAIN PLEASE GET VACCINATED.
Despite the blowback, O’Connor said he has also received a lot of supportive messages from clients who agree with the company’s stance on vaccines.
“We’re not going to change our stance – we’re for vaccinations, and 95 percent of our clients are for vaccinations.”
“A certain group, and it’s a minority group, jumped on it. And they have their views-and that’s great, but we’re allowed to have our views as well…Nobody was segregated, nobody was discriminated [against]; that’s what some are saying, and it didn’t happen.”