Posted on 02/21/2010 11:45:36 AM PST by Captain Peter Blood
About six months ago Wal-Mart instituted a new reorganization at the store level and I would like to know in this space of time what your shopping experience at Wal-Mart has been.
Before the reorganization there seemed to be enough help to service the customers, keep the floor stocked and take care of the store. Since the reorganization it seems the opposite is true.
Six months ago the store management structure was changed along with hiring and staffing procedures.
Wal-Mart now has a store manager, at least two shift managers, they supposedly handle all day to day operations; Several assistant managers, a new position called Zone Merchandise Supervisor, and the Department Managers.
The Zone Merchandise Supervisors are in charge of what is known as pads, those are large areas of the store such as Apparel, Entertainment, Grocery and Hard Lines. These people took over several of the functions that the assistant managers had except they are paid hourly. They supervise the Department managers and merchandise their areas. A lot of responsibility for basically a two dollar an hour raise.
All hiring is done through a district hiring office, there is no hiring allowed at the individual store anymore. Wal-Marts plan is for most all stores to be 70% part time workers and 30% full time. All hiring needs for a store have to be in the form of a requisition to the district hiring office, especially if it is for a full time position.
All hiring and staffing needs are based on the allotted hours for a particular department and more importantly how many pieces of merchandise are sold on an hourly and day to day basis. These figures are updated on a monthly and quarterly basis.
The implementation of this plan though has lead to staffing shortages and an inability for management, especially the Zone Merchandise Supervisors to be able to do their jobs as originally outlined.
The following is a typical day in Wal-Mart Store management routines:
At around 7:00 AM the Store Manager tours the store with the day Shift Manager where they take notes of what needs to be done.
At 8:00 AM there is a management staff meeting where various notes are given out to the assistant managers for their areas.
At 8:30 AM the assistant managers meet with their area Zone Merchandise Supervisor to give them the notes they got and the ZMS divvies those notes out to the area Department Managers to get done usually by the close of business that day.
Next up is, starting at 9:00 AM the Shift Manager, and a assistant manager along with an area ZMS do a more detailed tour of an area where more notes are generated that will be given to a specific Department manager to do in a specific time frame.
These type of tours go on all day to catch every ZMS’ area to tour at least one department.
Then at approximately 2:30 p.m. and again at 4:00 p.m. ZMS’s and then assistants meet with senior store management to see how many notes were completed for the day.
So you see the new structure is about giving out tour notes, things that need to be addressed or done in departments , Zones of the store and, a lot of meetings.
One of Sam Walton’s most famous quotes for Associates was that,” We’ll take care of the associates and they will take care of the customers”. I am not sure I believe that is true anymore.
What have your shopping experiences been in Wal-Mart these last several months? Have you found things about the same or have you found customer service lacking? Are the front check- out lanes always crowded with not enough cashiers?
I would like to hear feedback on this in order to gauge what is going on in other parts of the country.
My local WalMart shut down for a period of time while it was being remodeled. It reopened recently, presumably under the new plan.
They vastly expanded the food section to the detriment of everything else. It’s still not as good as a real supermarket, but now it really sucks for non-food products.
I’m glad there’s still a K-mart in the area.
Boy are you going to get a bunch of noise from the jackasses on this forum.
As an increasingly less frequent Wal-Mart shopper, here’s some feedback:
1. Merchandise isn’t restocked very well. I’ll often see the same empty shelf space over the course of several visits.
2. It’s pretty darned hard to find someone to help you in some departments. This is pretty annoying in the electronics department where you keep things like flash drives and video games locked up.
3. What’s the point of having self-checkout of half the things are broken all the time?
4. To end on a positive note, I’ve noticed that my local Wal-Mart is no longer clogging every available square inch of floor space with crap, particularly in the front of the store by cash-wrap. THANK you for that.
Very few non-Mexican Americans are employed at our local Texas Walmart. It’s gone mexican. Mexican level quality and speaks like Mexico, too.
There was a huge turnover where everyone else disappeared once Mexican managers showed up a couple of years ago. I think it turned into a race based family affair. Liberals would call it diversity and Jorge Bush would call it Mexicans “doin’ the work (now unemployed) Americans don’t want to do. It’s like a cheap international travel experience w/o the drug dealers dipping folks in acid!
Since I am not a Mexican and don’t live in Mexico, I switched to Target.
I just hate it when their stupid theft beeper goes off when I am exiting and the greeter practically pulls a gun on you. Its always where the checkout clerk didn’t properly scan your merchandise.
I try to use self-scan checkouts so I don’t have to talk to people.
Ditto! re the loss of fabric and some crafts. You’d think, in this day of ‘green’ everything, they would encourage crafts and making your own clothes. Guess not. Fabric stores are becoming rare too. Wonder where all that fabric went?
You are so right! The employees are just the worst. They act like a smile would break their face. They advertise ad matching but I have found it is such a hassle that I don’t do it. The clerk always has to call an assistant manager and they act like they have the most important job on the planet and like you are trying to cheat them.
Another good answer re. kids would have been:” I PAID for mine myself, how about you?”
This was my experience in my sole shopping trip I have made at a Wal-Mart. There was more merchandise it seemed on the floor than on the shelves. I have never shopped at Wal-Mart since.
You can’t count on them to stock items you need. The stocking decisions seem to indicate that decisions are made by people who know little about the products. Flow and cost are valid issues but should be balanced by customer service, people often need items that may not be fast movers.
I have three Walmarts near me. None are as busy as they used to be.
This is my biggest complaint with my local non-Super Center Walmart. Since it's so close to my house, I've been in there many times over the past year looking for a basic household item (e.g. hoseclamps, video game accessory, Christmas lights, oil filter, simple mounting hardware, etc.) and came back out with nothing. These are all things I swear I used to be able to find there, but no longer.
Seems like they never have what I'm looking for anymore. I attribute this to my local store's adoption of a greatly expanded food section, crowding out other merchandise areas of the store. I don't know who decides what they stock & don't, but they're a moron. Especially since I'd rather go to a full-selection grocery store for food, vs. Walmart, I don't see much reason to go to Walmart anymore unless it's for a REALLY common item I've seen there before, since they probably won't have it anyway.
That being said, my local store is very clean and organized and the employees are pleasant. I wouldn't notice reduced service, since I avoid "service" and sales people in stores like the plague.
Variation in Walmart "quality" is huge, since every Walmart is basically a reflection of the local community it's located in. In the larger metropolitan area I live in, there are nice ones & horrible, dirty ones. The latter are typically in older, more urban, or lower income areas. Since the vast majority of employees and management that work there are drawn from the local community, it makes sense that each Walmart will reflect the people who live around it. Centralized attempts at quality control would be pointless.
Your Wal Mart sounds like my closest Wal Mart (30mi away). And this one still has a fabric dept. If I go to the Valley where there is a Super Wal Mart (or whatever they are called) I find it much less to my liking. People are not helpful, friendly, and store kinda messy.
Parking lot smells like urine... like in a third-world country. Really gross!!!
Never been when there hasn’t been lines. Seems strange. So many registers, yet none of them are ever open. (went to Sam’s once and there were nearly 20 people in line and one register open. I finally just left my cart of stuff and went home and never returned.)
I also noticed the poorly stocked shelves. That’s depressing. And stores getting messier.
Produce was always substandard. I rarely bought there.
Now I avoid the place. It’s like shopping in Mexico and worth paying a little more at Target for a cleaner, better shopping experience.
To cope with the recession, businesses have been squeezing their costs harder than ever before. This makes for often ill-founded management initiatives to save on personnel costs. Since the recession will linger for some time to come, do not expect to see this trend to ease until it noticeably impairs customer satisfaction relative to competitors.
Other than the knock down cat fight in the express checkout line, and waiting 20 minutes to find out they only have .25 cal and 357 Sig, everything's been OK
Yeah, more layers of management and less local autonomy is sure to work out great :). Seems like I've seen recent news articles where Walmart sales have been down in the last quarter, whereas a year ago (same recession) they were doing much better. "Reorganization" at work?
This new organization reflects basic socialist trends at work. As someone mentioned above, sounds like they must have a higher percentage of far-left Ivy Leaguers at corporate, screwing things up in an attempt to "get control." More layers of management in an organization that was already working efficiently is NEVER a good idea. FAIL! Neither is more central control. Yeah, that has worked out so well for public school systems and other government controlled hierarchies where central planning is the order of the day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.