‘We are not trying to stop people from using cell phones’: Walmart boss
“We have no interest in stopping people from being able to use their cell phones in our stores.
We want them to use our store to make purchases,” said Wendy Zabriskie, vice president of public relations at Walmart, according to CBC News.
She added that while the company has not seen any reports of cell phone usage at its stores, she said it would “absolutely” ban cell phones from the stores if they were being used.
The company has been fighting a number of lawsuits over its use of cell phones.
In the first case, in 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that cell phone use was prohibited in Canada.
In a separate case in 2015, a Quebec court upheld a ban on cell phone service.
In both cases, the companies had to prove that the use was “not a public nuisance” and that the companies would be able to enforce their ban.
The court said the courts should not be “forced to give special protection to private, private interests.”
Walmart’s Zabstraie also said that the company was “aware” of the concerns about its use in stores and that it would investigate how to make its cell phone policy more reasonable.
In its statement on Wednesday, Walmart said it has seen “a spike” in complaints from consumers who say they are having trouble using their cellphones in stores.
“While we continue to closely monitor our stores, we will take appropriate actions to prevent this from happening again,” the statement said.