This article presents national chains’ adoption of mask rules as something new, but it was very clear early on that they played the decisive role in establishing new hygienic norms on a national scale. Basically, if Home Depot and Costco were doing it, smaller retailers had to follow suit. Just as Amazon’s website has become the de-facto card catalog for the masses, big-box stores have become a form of media, or maybe even an arm of ‘the’ media.