Walmart starts limiting number of customers inside stores today

Walmart implemented some changes today to help in the fight against the spread of COVID-19. Starting today, they will limit the number of customers who can be in a store at once. Stores will now allow no more than five customers for each 1,000 square feet at a given time, roughly 20 percent of a store’s capacity.

“While many of our customers have been following the advice of the medical community regarding social distancing and safety, we have been concerned to still see some behaviors in our stores that put undue risk on our people,” Walmart stated in a press release yesterday. “We want to encourage customers to bring the fewest number of people per family necessary to shop, allow for space with other customers while shopping, and practice social distancing while waiting in lines. We’re also seeing states and municipalities set varying policies regarding crowd control – which has created some confusion regarding shopping.”

Over the past few weeks Walmart says that have taken steps such as expanding paid leave policies; closing their stores overnight for cleanings and restocking; installing sneeze guards and social distance markers in stores; beginning temperature checks; and starting to make gloves and masks available to associates who want them.

The new measures taken by Walmart starting today include:

Regulating Store Entry

Stores will now allow no more than five customers for each 1,000 square feet at a given time, roughly 20 percent of a store’s capacity.

To manage this restriction, the associates at a store will mark a queue at a single-entry door (in most cases the grocery entrance) and direct arriving customers there, where they will be admitted one-by-one and counted. Associates and signage will remind customers of the importance of social distancing while they’re waiting to enter a store – especially before it opens in the morning.

Once a store reaches its capacity, customers will be admitted inside on a “1-out-1-in” basis.

Shopping Inside the Store

Walmart says they will also institute one-way movement through the aisles in a number of stores, using floor markers and direction from associates.

Once customers check out, they will be directed to exit through a different door than they entered, which Walmart says should help lessen the instances of people closely passing each other.