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Walmart Joins Big Retail Peers Requiring Masks for U.S. Shoppers

  • Retailer says its making them mandatory to promote safety
  • Mask requirements have turned into political issue across U.S.
Shoppers wait in line to enter a Walmart in Torrance, California, on May 19, 2020. 

Shoppers wait in line to enter a Walmart in Torrance, California, on May 19, 2020. 

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
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Walmart Inc. will require customers to wear masks in all of its U.S. stores to protect against the coronavirus, an admission that the nation’s pandemic has reached new heights and setting up potential confrontations with customers who refuse to don them.

The measure will go into effect starting July 20, 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.