Walmart will not enforce facial mask rules to avoid physical confrontations

• People who refuse to wear a face mask will be seen at Walmart, and many other stores, despite having imposed new mask rules, according to a CNN report.
• On July 20, Walmart began to demand the use of masks at all of its stores, as coronavirus cases increased again in many parts of the U.S.
• However, to avoid a “physical confrontation,” staff were instructed to care for people who refuse to use one anyway, Walmart spokeswoman Delia Garcia told Business Insider.
• Home Depot, Lowe’s, CVS and Walgreens will also serve people who refuse to use them, according to CNN.
• The acceptance of the mask is increasing, but there have been several incidents of violence in stores and towards customer staff members who oppose the mask’s rules.
• Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.

Shoppers who refuse to wear a face mask to visit Walmart will still receive services, as the company seeks to protect its staff from “physical confrontation,” according to a CNN report.

Walmart had announced that starting July 20, face masks would be mandatory for everyone except those whose medical conditions prevent it, as Hayley Peterson of Business Insider reported. At least 27 other retailers have recently required the same.

However, a training video seen by CNN tells management to allow people who refuse to wear a mask to “continue shopping.”

Home Depot, Lowe’s, CVS and Walgreens have also said they will serve customers without masks, CNN reported.

Walmart spokeswoman Delia Garcia said in a statement to Business Insider: “We know there may be situations that do not allow everyone to cover their faces.” In those situations, “we will allow them to shop at our stores and clubs,” he said.

“Our goal is to prevent associates from physically clashing, and our ambassadors will receive training on those exceptions to help reduce friction for the buyer,” he added.

Failure to impose masks makes it a “public relations stunt”, critic says

Walmart first announced its mask rule with a blog post explaining how it trained special “health ambassadors” whose job it is to stand at the store entrance and “remind those without masks of our new requirements.”

The company said ambassadors would seek solutions when people refuse and acknowledge that some cannot wear masks for health reasons.

But health ambassadors are told in a training video not to stop clients from physically refusing. Instead, they report to a manager, “so they can determine the next steps,” according to CNN.

However, the company does not rule out involving the police. A Walmart spokesperson told CNN, “While we try to find solutions for customers who don’t wear face shields, from time to time, we need to call the police for assistance in those areas.”

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Union of Retailers, Wholesalers, and Department Stores, criticized the lack of stronger enforcement. He told CNN that if companies “don’t require customers to wear a mask inside their store, then they never had a requirement. All they had was a PR stunt.”

Walmart did not offer Business Insider a comment on the criticism, and did not respond to questions about the request by security personnel to enforce the rule.

Masks are becoming more accepted, but still difficult for retail workers

A Gallup poll published on July 6 showed that the use of masks had become increasingly accepted in the US, and 85% of people said they had worn one. Only 11% say they have not considered it.

At her stores, Garcia, a Walmart spokeswoman, emphasized that “virtually everyone brings a mask or meets the requirement.”

However, retail staff have suffered the brunt of numerous violent outbursts from some refusing customers.

Viral videos have shown that anti-mask buyers have outbursts on the subject. In early July, a woman was filmed destroying a mask screen at an Arizona Target, while another customer at an Oregon Costco sat on the floor and refused to leave in a protest against the mask.

The problem has caused injuries: In late June, a 19-year-old McDonald’s worker in California was physically attacked and racially abused by a customer who had been asked to wear a mask, as reported by Kate Taylor of Business Insider.

CBS Los Angeles reported that the employee confronted the man on July 15 at the Ralphs grocery store in downtown Los Angeles and told him he had to wear a mask or leave the establishment, a guideline required by Los County. Angels

The man hit the employee with a shopping cart, and in response “she sprayed him with pepper and called the police,” according to the report.

In its blog post, Walmart said that about 65% of its 5,000 stores are in areas where there is already a mask mandate at the state level. But the Association of Retail Industry Leaders, of which Walmart is a member, wrote to governors on July 6 to request that it be consistently imposed in 50 states, CNN reported.