We know our customers have lots of questions about the new rules on face coverings that came into effect today (24th July).
New rules introduced by the Government in England mean that from today all customers must wear a face covering when visiting one of our stores. We are strongly encouraging customers to respect these rules and when you visit a store, you will see that we have introduced new signs at the entrance and on our shelves, to remind customers that they need to follow the new regulations. You will also hear further reminders played over Asda FM, our in-store radio station.
Our colleagues will also be politely reminding any customer not wearing a face covering that they need to do so. If for whatever reason someone has forgotten their covering, we will be selling packs of masks in stores that you can purchase and wear to complete your shop, before paying for these at the tills.
We understand that it may take a little while until everyone is used to the new rules and there may be a number of situations where customers may not have a covering. Until the 30th July each store will have a small number of individual disposable masks available for you to use, free of charge, if you do not have your own covering.
We know that some customers are unable to wear a face covering for many reasons and would advise them to let our colleagues know that they qualify for an exemption.
Whilst we will continue to do all we can to encourage customers to respect the new rules and we know that the vast majority will adapt to these new guidelines, we cannot put colleagues at risk by asking them to enforce the law if a customer refuses to abide by the rules.
We would like to thank our customers in Scotland who have already been wearing face coverings in stores since the 10th July – the vast majority have embraced the new rules while shopping with us.
Although face coverings are not mandatory in Wales, we would strongly encourage that customers who are considering visiting one of our stores wear a face covering to help keep everyone safe.
The Northern Ireland Executive have also encouraged the public to wear face coverings in shops, and we will be encouraging our customers there to follow the guidance.
The current Government guidance is that retail workers in England do not have to wear a face covering, however, we are strongly encouraging our colleagues to wear them and know many of our colleagues feel safer wearing them and we will continue providing them with masks or visors.
You might be interested to watch the video our CEO made for our colleagues about wearing masks below.
Throughout the pandemic our customers have embraced many new rules to help keep everyone safe in our stores, and we are confident they will continue to show care and consideration for each other by wearing a face covering when they visit our stores.
