Coronavirus: Walmart begins limiting number of people in stores, other changes

Walmart announced several safety measures Tuesday, including the requirement that employees have their temperatures taking when reporting to work.

Credit: Don & Melinda Crawford/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Credit: Don & Melinda Crawford/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Walmart announced several safety measures Tuesday, including the requirement that employees have their temperatures taking when reporting to work.

Walmart has announced that, starting today, it will limit the number of customers that can be in a store so they can preserve social distancing.

According to a press release, the company will now only allow five customers per 1,000 square feet of space in the store at any given time – roughly a fifth of a given store’s capacity.

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This will be regulated by employees at a single-entry door, where there will be a marked-out line for customers to stand in. They will then be admitted one at a time and counted.

Both employees and signs will also remind customers of the importance of social distancing while they’re waiting.

The stores will also begin implementing one-way movement through their aisle in a number of stores using floor markers and direction from employees.

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After checking out, customers will be directed out a different entrance than they came in to prevent closely passing others.

“We always want people to feel welcome at Walmart, and we know that in ordinary times a store is a gathering place for members of a community to connect and socialize,” the company said in the release. “We look forward to the time when that is again the case; however, we now want to prioritize health and safety by encouraging customers to do their shopping at a distance from others, then head home.”

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