Hated to be that guy who complains but today I had my fill....

[Werewolf]

For me I dont like to go to walmart since they cut out so many of the handicapped parking spots. I know that was done by walmart not anyone at the stores. But I will say this and bet I am correct .... A HAPPY CUSTOMER SPENDS MORE MONEY.

Maybe but at Walmart their philosophy is keep 'em in the store.

EX:
1) Get a prescription filled there and tell 'em you're gonna wait. Even with no one ahead of you and 2 or 3 employees back there sittin' on their butts they'll tell you it's gonna be an hour. Why because most people won't bother going home for just an hour and then have to come back so they'll stay in Walmart and wander. Guess what most of 'em do while wandering?

2) Buy a battery for your car at Walmart - they'll ask if you want it installed. Guess how long it takes for that to happen?

3) Use a Walmart Photog for portraits? It takes about an hour to get 'em if you're willing to wait.

Common thread? Keep the customer in the store for as long as possible while they wait without the wait being so long the customer chooses to go home and return later. The magic number turns out to be an hour or so.

That's what turns into money.

Just another example of how good Walmart is at marketing and why they are #1 despite all the complaining about them.

Aside: don't like Walmart don't spend your money there. go somewhere else and spend more - at least (ROFLMAO) that's what Walmart wants you to believe but then that's another story entirely.

 

[walker]

I'll bite. I have worked for Wal-Mart for over 12 years now. I am a home office field associate. I go from store to store through half of the state. Some stores have lousy managers and their attitude trickles down, some are still good. The whole company is under alot of pressure from saled being down because people just dont have the money to blow now days. The new operations director we have is trying to turn things around from what the last guy did. The last one came from Target and he is the one who had the shelves lowered and isles widened to make it look more open like target. That means you cant carry as many products that people are used to buying. Walmart is like a giant ocean liner, it takes alot of work to turn it around. Government regulations are killing us as well. We are forced to spend billions of dollars on energy saving schemes just to save a few million in energy costs.
Its still a good company. We have given billions to charity and are the leader in retail and energy innovations.
All the bad press the company gets for crappy insurance and low wages are from the OWS types that were lousy employees and needed to be fired. Nobody is going to start an uneducated checker at $10 bucks per hour, thats an entry level job, get real. The insurance ceartianly isnt what it used to be but nobodys is, its all gone up in price.
I'm not a company man. i'm blue collar and try my best to just do my job and stay out of others buisness. If I found a better job I would take it, the fact is I havent.
Walmart sells the products people need for an affordable price and they employ alot of poeople in all communities. Capatilism baby.

 

[ronny]

That was pretty well said, Walker.

 

[1shott]

This was never a bash walmart thread it is a thread about very poor customer service in a job that customer service is a requirment.

 

[ronny]

Aww, 1shott. You know you can't mention WalMart without it turning into a "bash WalMart" thread. That's just the way it is. Poor WalMart.

 

[EhlerDave]

It is clear you have never developed any property. Wal-Mart has absolutely no control over how many handicapped spots there are. It is controlled by local and state law. Different types of businesses have a different percentage of their parking spots to be used for handicapped parking.

What I am talking about is how the spaces that were for parking 8 cars now hold 5. I called and spoke with a manager and she said everyone is mad and we will be changing it back, that was a year ago. Funny how all the walmarts and sams changed at the same time. Could be new rules I dot know.

 

[30BulletHoles]

Not just Wal Mart. Most places, retail, dining, utilities, cable,satellite, etc. don't give a rats ass about the customer anymore. They are just like " give me your money and get your ass down the road" and act like they are doing you a favor by taking money from you.

 

[WTJ]

The .gov no longer pays its "employees" on the first and fifteenth of the month. They have too many. WalMart has the market cornered in most medium to small towns, and you don't have many other options. Some Wally good, some Wally bad. In OKC the one on 240 is almost dangerous, but the one on north Douglas is nice and rarely crowded. The parking places started going to crap AFTER the .gov started regulating them with ADD or ADA or whatever it is and who knows what else.

It is a cultural issue, and it may not be possible to change it. It seems like everyone has some need to be 'special' these days, and there is a lot of self-absorbed people in the world.

 

[vvvvvvv]

Nobody is going to start an uneducated checker at $10 bucks per hour, thats an entry level job, get real.

The problem is that McD's up the road will...

The hiring process was my biggest problem as a department manager. Granted, it was 4 years ago, but it was when they took the hiring and compensation control out of the local store's hands due to the normal management favoritism. (I worked with an overnight stocker making $24/hr after 7 years, and I knew of a cart pusher at another store making $19/hr after 3 years.)

So the solution that was put in place at the time was for all applications to go through a process that involve Home Office before we could even call the applicant for an interview. That took the turn around time from clicking the submit button to receiving a phone call from as little as four hours to a minimum of six weeks in my experience. I would have 20 applicants, and 18 of them had already found jobs (higher paying to boot), 1 was just applying to meet the "active job search" requirements to get a welfare check and would pooch the interview, and the only one that was left would voluntarily leave within 30 days or would fail the stupid drug test.

I also could not offer a competitive salary. Store-level wages were set by Home Office based on the type of area the store was located in. While the store was in a rural area and thus the wages started at $0.20 above minimum wage, McDonald's was offering $9/hr at the time, the grocery stores were offering $9/hr at the time, and oilfield was offering $15/hr at the time - all "entry level". Before that change, I could offer a stocker a $9/hr wage based on "customer service" experience (90% of applicants in a college town worked at Sonic, McD's or a retailer in high school), but after their "reform" that was no longer an option. "Our tables say that this should be a competitive wage in your market." Keep in mind this was 2007. Minimum wage was $5.85.

When I left Wal-Mart, I took a job that I was (on paper) under-qualified for at the market rate for someone with the paper qualifications. Even leaving as a Department Manager with 2.5 years experience and leading district sales most months with one of the smallest departments in the district, I could have "gotten a raise" working 32 hours at McDonald's instead of 40 hours at the local Wal-Mart.

And all that I've heard from my contacts that are still at Wal-Mart is that the process has gotten worse.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Veggie, our fire department had a fire alarm there once that was from a heat/air unit problem. Our captain informed one of the managers and said it needed to be turned off until repaired. Manager said we can't do that here, we have to notify ??Bentonville??. We just flipped the main breaker to that unit. LOL