Former actor Ricky Schroder posted an unsettling video on Facebook over the weekend in which he berates a Costco worker who wouldn’t let him enter the store without a protective face mask.
The video, filmed and posted by Schroder on Saturday afternoon, shows the former child star confronting a store supervisor named Jason at the entrance to a Costco outlet in Los Angeles.
The worker is shown explaining to Schroder that the state of California still requires masks despite new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that states fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks indoors.
The man points out that private businesses were simply following local mandates regarding pandemic restrictions that would probably be lifted in a matter of weeks, reports said.
“Oh, if they allow us? If they grant us that, our kings?” Schroder complained. “The people in power. You’re going to listen to these people? They destroyed our economy. They’re destroying our culture. They’re destroying our state. And you’re just going to listen to their rules?”
Schroder, who was filming the episode, then tells viewers to cancel their Costco memberships.
“I’m getting my refund from Costco. I suggest everybody in California get their refund from Costco,” Schroder shouts into the camera. “Give up your membership from Costco until they remove this.”
The video ends with Schroder receiving a receipt to document his refund for a canceled membership.
By Monday, following a severe backlash on social media, Schroder calmly apologizes to the man in another video posted to Facebook and Instagram, saying, “Jason, nothing personal, I’m not upset with you.”
“I was trying to make a point to the corporate overlords and sorry that I had to use you to do it. If I hurt your feelings, I do apologize. But I do think independence from medical tyranny is more important than hurt feelings,” he added and said he wants things to go back to the way they were before the pandemic.
“In Costco locations where the state or local jurisdiction does not have a mask mandate, we will allow members and guests who are fully vaccinated to enter Costco without a face mask or face shield,” the company said in a statement last week. “We will not require proof of vaccination, but we ask for members’ responsible and respectful cooperation with this revised policy. Face coverings will still be required in healthcare settings, including Pharmacy, Optical, Hearing Aid. Costco continues to recommend that all members and guests, especially those who are at higher risk, wear a mask or shield.”
Schroder, 51, then moves on to discussing “backing the blue” and the supposed rise of Marxism in America.
Schroder was a prominent child star who rose to fame in the 1979 movie “The Champ” — a film which won him a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year.
He is perhaps best remembered for his role on the 1980s TV sitcom “Silver Spoons.” He hasn’t been in a big screen film since 2010, when he made a cameo appearance as himself in the comedy “Get Him to the Greek.” His last acting turn came as a cast member in the 2016 made-for-television drama “Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love.”
More recently his name has been associated with legal troubles and controversies. In 2019, he was arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse, and in 2020 he made headlines for contributing to a bail fund for Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged in the shooting deaths of two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
