Walmart To Require Masks For All Customers, Who's Gonna Tell Karen?

The new mask policy goes into effect next week

As cases of COVID-19 continue to spike throughout the country this summer, the nation’s biggest retailer is now requiring all customers to wear masks. Walmart announced the new mask policy, which begins next week, will be a requirement in all 9,000 of its company-owned U.S. stores.

Currently, no federal mandate to wear a mask exists, but a few states have taken the reins and required them for all citizens going outside their homes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says everyone “should wear a cloth face cover when they have to go out in public.” The CDC said “face coverings are meant to protect other people.” (And no, wearing a mask does not give you Co2 poisoning — that’s a bad faith argument based on a myth.)

Best Buy also announced they’ll be requiring all shoppers to wear masks nationwide. Costco and Starbucks are two other national chain retailers that currently have a mask policy. In a statement released today, Walmart says Sam’s Club locations are also included in the mask policy.

“As the number of confirmed cases has spiked in communities across the country recently, so too have the number and types of face covering mandates being implemented,” the statement reads.

So that leaves one important question: who’s gonna break the news to the Karens?

While many major retailers and grocery stores have shifted their initial “let’s leave it up to the individual shopper” mask stance to a “okay, none of you are capable of policing yourselves so just cover your face holes before you come in,” that hasn’t stopped the Karens of all genders from freaking the hell out about it.

Like this guy, who has major “I subscribe to toxic masculinity because I peaked in high school” vibes, who threw a rage-fit at an old woman in Costco when she asked him why he wasn’t wearing a mask.

And let’s not forget this woman, who was basically lying in wait for her local Trader Joe’s store to open on its first day of business so she could scream about her “rights” and heave giant plumes of saliva with such force, the sequins on her circa 2003 Bebe shirt were quivering.

As the COVID-19 data currently reflects, more than 3.3 million people have now tested positive for the coronavirus nationwide and more than 130,000 have died. Cases are rising so rapidly, many cities, counties, and states are reimposing heavy restrictions to help contain new outbreaks. Requiring masks in public settings is the responsible thing to do.

Walmart’s new policy officially takes effect Monday, July 20.