Walmart again limits number of customers in stores nationwide, City of El Paso implies credit for it

EL PASO, Texas – Walmart has resumed monitoring and counting the number of customers entering its stores in El Paso and across the nation as coronavirus cases surge to record rates.

The City of El Paso sent out a news release announcing the change Monday evening and implying that Walmart's move locally was the result of discussions between Mayor Dee Margo and the retail giant. The release was headlined: "City Reducing Numbers Entering Big Stores."

However, Walmart's corporate office in Arkansas had previously announced the move, which already began Saturday nationwide, to return to “metering” in order to limit the number of customers inside a single store at one time. The story was reported over the weekend by national news outlets and here on KVIA.com.

In the early weeks of the pandemic, Walmart initially restricted 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.

The retail giant later stopped physically counting customers as they came and went, a practice Walmart has now renewed.