The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
MASK RULES
Policy goes into effect next week, following other chains’ moves.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, and Kroger said they will require face coverings at all U.S. stores starting Monday,
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, and Kroger said they will require face coverings at all U.S. stores soon.
Arkansas-based Walmart announced the mandate in a Wednesday release, citing the recent resurgence in U.S. coronavirus cases and the need for consistency across its operations. Walmart said roughly 3,250 of its 5,000 namesake stores and Sam’s Club locations already comply with public health mandates in their respective markets.
Kroger followed suit Wednesday afternoon, announcing in a tweet the Ohio-based grocery store chain would require customers to wear masks in all its locations starting July 22. Employees are already required to wear masks.
The measure will go into effect starting Monday, U.S. Chief Operating Officer Dacona Smith said in a blog post Wednesday. The retailer will place employees, dubbed “Health Ambassadors,” near the entrance to “remind those without a mask of the new requirements,” it said. Stores will have a single entrance.
Walmart’s decision follows similar moves by Costco, Starbucks and Best Buy. Walmart already demands that its workers wear masks, and shoppers had been encouraged to do so with signage.
“While we’re certainly not the first business to require face coverings, we know this is a simple step everyone can take for their safety and the safety of others in our facilities,” Smith said in the announcement. The requirement also applies to Sam’s Club, Walmart’s membership-based warehouse retail division.
Most major retailers and drugstore chains require masks in places where state or local governments say they are mandatory, and about two-thirds of Walmart’s stores are located in areas with some mask mandates. But few have made it a nationwide policy, perhaps fearful of wading into what’s become a bitter political issue that has led to violent, even fatal, confrontations between retail workers and customers who refuse to cover their face.
As the pandemic worsens, though, and the number of new cases hits fresh highs in several states, some executives have changed their thinking. In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday, Walmart Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said requiring masks nationwide was on his mind.
Best Buy, the consumer electronics retailer, said Tuesday that small children and those unable to wear a mask “for health reasons” can still enter without one. The concession to those with health concerns raises one of the thornier problems with mask mandates: customers who simply don’t want to wear one for whatever reason can just claim to have a health problem, and store employees are unable to demand proof of their specific condition due to privacy concerns.
“We know it may not be possible for everyone to wear a face covering,” Walmart’s Smith said. “We know some people have differing opinions on this topic. Our associates will be trained on those exceptions to help reduce friction for the shopper and make the process as easy as possible for everyone.”
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents more than a million employees in supermarkets and food-processing plants, said June 25 that 82 grocery workers it represents have died from COVID19, and 11,507 workers have been impacted in some way, usually by being exposed to the virus.