Scott Sutherland is frustrated.

He's not alone.

Sutherland about 1½ weeks ago was a server at Ridgway Bar and Grill in downtown Naples. He's now unemployed after Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 20 ordered all dining rooms in Florida to shut down. On an outing to apply for new jobs, he stopped at Oakes Farms Seed to Table Market and was shocked by what he saw.

“People were sitting like it was a restaurant," Sutherland said. "There's no social distancing in the grocery store whatsoever. They should have to abide by the restrictions."

At Seed to Table, there are signs indicating the bars are closed and signs saying that all food must be ordered to-go, but customers are reporting dining spaces are still open to the public.

Alfie Oakes, owner of Seed to Table, has publicly stated multiple times that he does not believe the government should regulate business activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Why does Oakes Farms Market Seed to Table get a pass on social distancing?" Sutherland said in an email.

Previously:Seed to Table in Naples has shelves stocked while other grocery stores are selling out amid COVID-19 panic buying

Oakes says he hasn't gotten a pass.

“At the store we are totally following protocol," he told the Daily News on Tuesday.

"From the moment the governor gave an executive order to stop serving alcohol, we stopped serving alcohol. We were allowing people to eat to-go food on tables where they were using good social distancing, but we even stopped doing that because there were a lot of people who seemed to be upset.

"I even had one person, an older man, beg me not to take away his ability to eat his breakfast alone in there and I couldn’t see any logical reason that that would hurt anybody, but we even had to end up taking that away.”

In case you missed it:Florida restaurants ordered to close dining rooms, offer takeout, delivery only

According to the executive order from DeSantis, all restaurants and food establishments within the State of Florida have to suspend on-premises food and alcohol consumption for customers, but are allowed to continue with takeout and delivery services.

The order covers restaurants, bars and food courts, but what about grocery stores?

The Florida Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services says gathering in grocery store dining areas is a no-go, according to Max Flugrath, press secretary for FDACS.

"If our inspectors see dine-in activity, we will issue a stop-use order for further dine-in activity. If they do not comply, they could face a penalty of up to $5,000 for violating our stop-use order," Flugrath said. "Kitchens can still operate for takeout and delivery services, but not for dine-in activity."

On violations:Restaurants, bars could face license suspensions should they violate COVID-19 executive order

Seed to Table's general manager Dan St. Martin said the store is doing everything it can to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Our dining areas are closed 100%. The only thing we do is takeout,” St. Martin said Tuesday.

“The only time people are sitting down at tables is when people are waiting to pick up their food and take it home.”

Some customers have complained that Seed to Table is still allowing live music in the store and encouraging people to stay and watch. Some Facebook posts even claim there are after-hours parties happening in the store's bars with DJs playing music.

“It’s all about the customer experience, and people are blowing that up into something that it’s not,” St. Martin said.

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“Nobody else out there is still playing music. We’re not getting any kind of return of investment on the music. Our bars aren’t open, there’s nobody drinking while we have music on, it’s just to put a smile on people’s face in a time that we need to smile.”

Oakes and St. Martin both flatly denied any after-hours social gatherings were happening in the store.

In a post on Seed to Table's Facebook page on March 24, Oakes shared a letter he wrote to U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, arguing that the long-term economic effects of a stay-at-home order outweigh the risk of spreading COVID-19.

"As I said ... I do believe this is a terrible health crisis. My question is does it have to be a terrible economic tragedy too? And who does that help exactly? Does it help that you just lost your job, or your small business.? Does it help that you just lost your income or your life savings? Do you feel better about his health tragedy if you also have an economic tragedy to deal with?" Oakes said in the post.

He goes on to say that COVID-19 is part of a media-orchestrated plot, in partnership with globalists, to take down the presidency of Donald Trump.

"With the incredible power the Globalists yield over the World Health Organization and mainstream media, they easily created this incredible — yet completely baseless fear around the world regarding COVID-19," Oakes said in the same Facebook post.

More:Politically-charged Facebook post by Collier businessman Alfie Oakes creates a stir

At a Collier County Commissioner's meeting Friday, Oakes shared similar statements.

"Believe me, every life is very important to me but we can’t close down our whole economy based on a very minimal amount of lost lives," he said.

From the meeting:Collier Commission declines to order stay home to slow coronavirus spread

Responses to Oakes' posts and comments range from supportive to hostile, with some Facebook commenters saying they would never visit his store again.

Oakes said he believed he would be the best person to champion this message because he doesn't have any financial stake in businesses remaining open. He said his business has actually increased. His concern, he said, is for small businesses across the U.S. and that his comments were taken out of context.

"I care about all the people in our country. I care about all the people in my company, and I was hoping that people could see through the words (in the Facebook post) that that’s the way that I felt," Oakes said.

"But they wanted to look at it and say that I’m greedy or that I put money before lives and things like that. It’s not that. I just feel like there’s a lot of people that are not looking at what’s months and years down the road as a result of some of the things that we’re doing."

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In other groceries stores, dining areas have been closed, including at Whole Foods, where sit-down dining rooms are shut down and chairs have been removed.

In a March 29 Facebook post, the Collier Sheriff's Office said it has little ability to interfere with grocery store business. That duty is left to the FDACS, which urges consumers to report dine-in activity by filing a consumer complaint online at FloridaConsumerHelp.com or by calling 1-800-435-7352, or 1-800-352-9832 for Spanish speakers.

Officials with the Fort Myers and Cape Coral police departments and Lee County Sheriff's Office said they have not received many complaints about grocery stores, restaurants or bars whose dining rooms remained opened after state orders took effect. What few complaints they have received were quickly resolved.

"There was a report from (the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco) that they had to shut down a hookah lounge in Fort Myers," said Mitch Haley with the Fort Myers Police Department. "The owner was not aware of the order, so they were quick to comply and it closed immediately."

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Oakes remains adamant that he meant no harm from his Facebook posts.

“More than anything I stopped answering the post because there was so much hate and negativity and I realize that in times like this when there’s a lot of people who are emotional and afraid, that trying to use facts maybe doesn’t appeal to them," he said.

"And I realize maybe that I should have taken a different approach for the ones who don’t know me. The people that know me received it a lot better because they know what kind of person I am and they know my nature.”

Sutherland, the former Ridgway server, understands the desire to open up businesses more than most. He's eager to have a job again, but not, as he says, at the expense of others.

“A few weeks ago I thought it was media sensation, but now that I’ve read up on it and educated myself I can see it’s serious,” Sutherland said. "Yeah, I want it (businesses) opened up too, but these doctors are saying if you do this it could get worse.”

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