Walmart Will Be Limiting Stores to 20% Capacity Starting Saturday

As COVID numbers continue to hit record highs all across the country, Walmart will be doing what they can to limit customer contact.

CNBC reported that starting Saturday, November 21st, Walmarts all across America will be limiting their customer capacity to 20%.

Dating back to April, Walmart has been restricting the number of people in its big-box stores to not exceed five customers per every roughly 1,000 square feet, or about 20% of a store’s capacity. Those levels can also vary based on local mandates, the company said.

The Sartell Walmart is 187,000 square feet, meaning customer capacity will be about 935 people. The St. Cloud location is 150,000 square feet, meaning customer capacity will be about 750.

Walmart metered people coming in and out of their stores last spring by setting up a single entrance and exit point. I noticed they took down the Sartell setup in September. Walmart reported that when they were previously metering, they never fully reached their 20% capacity limits at stores.

The big-box store giant isn't the only line of work encouraging people to limit the spread of COVID-19. Healthcare workers are also urging people to stay home and limit contact with others as much as possible. For the third straight day, Minnesota has recorded over 7,000 new cases of the coronavirus, and hospitals and health care workers are starting to be overwhelmed. Governor Tim Walz also recently said the rate of COVID infection in Minnesota is among the worst in the world.

Wash your hands, take your vitamins, stay home as much as you can, wear a mask, and try to stay as healthy as possible.