Walmart Joins List of Retailers Requiring Face Masks

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Walmart is joining an ever growing list of retailers requiring customers to wear a face mask when inside their stores.
Beginning July 20, Walmart will require all customers to wear masks in its more than 5,000 stores in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, NBC News reports. The new mandate also applies to Sam’s Club stores.

To best serve our communities and protect the health and safety of our shoppers and associates, face coverings will be required in all stores beginning Monday, July 20. For more on our decision and policy, please see here: https://t.co/r2ijRqslNP pic.twitter.com/pKYQCzk48l

— Walmart (@Walmart) July 15, 2020

“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,” the company wrote in a joint statement from Walmart Chief Operating Officer Dacona Smith and Sam’s Club Chief Operating Officer Lance De La Rosa.
According to NBC News, the company will provide complimentary face masks to customers who don’t have one. They will also be selling face masks inside the stores.
“The Retail Leaders Industry Association, a retail industry trade group, called on governors last week to pass statewide mandates requiring people to wear masks in public,” NBC News reports. “The United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union, which represents grocery workers, also urged government officials to pass a mandate on face coverings in public this week.”