Walmart, and every private business, reserves the right to make customers wear a mask

The COOs of both Walmart and Sam’s Club announced Wednesday that a mask mandate will go in to effect on Monday for all staff and shoppers as a safety precaution intended to limit the spread of the coronavirus as positive cases have spiked across the country.

Most people say they’re already wearing masks inside stores and restaurants, and those who say they rarely or never do probably live in places where it hasn’t been a requirement.

But there is enough anecdotal evidence to say that a number of people are affronted at being asked to wear a mask. Some videos of public mask confrontations passed around on social media suggest that some people even think it’s an infringement of their civil rights for private businesses to instate rules for masks.

The Washington Post on Tuesday reported on restaurant owners and servers in northern Virginia who have experienced conflict with stubborn customers arguing and refusing to wear masks.

“They tell me it is not a federal law to wear masks,” the manager of one restaurant told the paper. “I have learned to say back that it is a restaurant law.”

The anti-mask crowd may see the mandates as the coronavirus equivalent of “security theater.” But even if they believe such mandates are merely in place to make people feel safe, with no real hygienic value, it’s only good business for any store or restaurant to make their customers feel comfortable when they visit.

There is no debate to be had here. Private businesses, all of them, reserve the right to refuse service to any customer who won’t comply with their terms of use.

No shirt, no shoes, no service? That now goes for masks and face coverings as well, until owners and managers say otherwise.

Fortunately for the few anti-maskers out there, they equally reserve the right to withhold their business if they’re truly that offended by it.