Walmart to require face masks for customers & workers at all U.S. stores
Walmart will require all customers and employees to wear face masks at all of its locations beginning July 20, as the U.S.’s surging COVID-19 diagnoses feed a groundswell of support for face coverings in public. Yahoo Finance’s Julia La Roche joins Kristin Myers to discuss.
Video Transcript
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KRISTIN MYERS: And without a federal mask mandate, we are seeing companies take matters into their own hands. Walmart now joining that list, alongside businesses like Starbucks and Costco, in requiring all customers to wear a face mask. Yahoo Finance's Julia La Roche joins us with more. Hey, Julia.
JULIE LA ROCHE: Hey, Kristin. That's right. Well, Walmart is not only the world's largest retailer. It's also the nation's largest private employer, employing more than 1 million associates across its nearly 5,000 stores here in the US. And as I mentioned, the world's largest retailer-- you have to imagine millions of people who go into a Walmart every single day.
And now Walmart stepping up, making it a requirement to wear a facial covering in its nearly 5,000 stores and clubs. Keep in mind, they also operate Sam's Club. They have 600 Sam's Club warehouses in the US. It's that membership-only club, and in addition to their 4,700 or so supercenters for both employees and customers.
Look, this has been a pretty politicized, polarizing issue. You've seen some of the videos that have emerged on social media in various stores. And Starbucks recently, starting today, actually, has made it a requirement across their 15,000 US stores that both customers and employees wear these facial coverings.
Walmart did put out a blog post. And their chief operating officer, Dacona Smith, wrote the following. She said, quote, we know some people have differing opinions on this topic. We also recognize the role we can play to help protect the health and well-being of the communities we serve by following the evolving guidance of the health officials, like the CDC.
So really, you're starting to see I guess companies kind of step up where there hasn't been a federal mandate. And again, the 5,000 stores I referenced, 65% of them are already in areas that have some sort of local facial covering requiring-- requirement, rather.
And then to enforce the policy, Walmart is creating a new role. It's called a health ambassador. This person will undergo some sort of training program to make sure the process is as smooth as possible when enforcing the new rule. This person will don a black polo shirt. They will be at the entrance of the stores.
And Sam's Club is going to be giving its members-- you pay for a membership to access Sam's Club, kind of like Costco-- they'll have-- if somebody doesn't have a mask, they will be able to get one on-site. And then I guess, again, if people don't want to wear one or they can't wear one, they can't go in the stores, there are lots of different ways to shop. Same whether it's Starbucks or whether it's Walmart, there's omnichannel. You don't have to go in stores. They have curbside pickup and those sorts of things.
So it'll be fun to follow, to see more companies step into this void, if you will, where we haven't seen a federal mandate.
KRISTIN MYERS: Yeah, well, hopefully by requiring all customers to wear a face mask, we can actually curb some of these case counts that we're seeing. As you mentioned, this happening in areas where we're starting to see those case counts really start to surge and spike. So hopefully we won't see any more videos of folks arguing with people at Costco or Starbucks or anywhere else, refusing to wear their face mask. Julia La Roche, thanks so much.
