ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — All the back and forth with the St. Louis County mask mandate is leaving a bit of a grey area for businesses on the ground trying to enforce the rules.
There have been a lot of changes in the dialogue around the mask mandate in St. Louis County over the past couple of days and that's causing confusion.
St. Louis County Executive Same Page said the mask mandate remains in place despite the county council voting to terminate it. The final decision will likely come through the courts.
RELATED: 'A mask mandate remains in place': St. Louis County executive defends mandate, despite council vote
People are just trying to keep up, and businesses are doing the same.
But business owners say, at the end of the day, they're doing what they have to do to keep their workers and customers safe.
Russ Little, a member of the family that owns and runs Afro World Hair and Fashions, said he thinks masks are a vital tool to slow the spread.
“The masks are what is going to be necessary in order for us to get out of this resurgence of the COVID," he said.
Afro World in Normandy has been around for more than 50 years. But, over the past year or so, things have looked a lot different.
Customers use a drive-thru window to shop, and masks make up anywhere from 40 to 80 percent of their sales.
They've seen more people looking for masks after the mandate was reinstated Monday.
Russ said most of the business owners he knows are still asking customers to wear them.
“There are several other restaurants in the neighborhood that I've been to in the neighborhood that, despite them turning back the policy, are still making it a part of company policy in order to keep it going," he said.
Over in St. Louis city, one of the owners of Golden Grocer in the Grove said he feels for business owners in the county right now.
"Without a doubt, it's confusing because of how quickly it seems to change," Jermain Todd said.
But Todd said when there is confusion over mask mandates and lawmakers aren't on the same page, it makes it much harder for businesses to enforce the rules.
He said their business made a decision when masks were optional for vaccinated people.
"Our angle was essentially to trust our customers, that they would make the right decision," he said. "Because we weren't going to put our staff in a position where they were going to have to confront our customers."
One woman headed into a nail salon in St. Louis County said she has some advice for people, regardless of what the outcome is with the county mask mandate.
"I'm vaccinated and I still wear my mask," Marlene Edwards said. "It's just best for you guys to keep your masks on. Everybody, just keep y'all's mask on."