Where I used to live, WM was the only game in town. Now I’m in Chapel Hill NC and have been to that pit maybe 7-8 times in the past few months. Last week I asked an associate if they carried pasta machines. Que? She had no freaking clue.
At least in PA, the associates all spoke English and tried to be helpful. Last week (same visit) the older AA Wal-Mart clerk carded me for smokes (I’m pushing 50 here!!!), and said it was “policy” to card everybody. Come on now.
Hate the place with a passion and avoid it at all costs.
Now that you mention it, there have seemed to be a little fewer associates on duty, and fewer cashiers too...There was an article posted to FR a few days ago about how the selection is being trimmed, with more and more name brands being culled in favor of wal mart’s own Great Value label. Last time I went there (yesterday) I looked , and it seemed to me that that is an accurate statement : There do seem to be fewer brands for any given category (eg, pasta sauce) and more and more GV things on the shelves.
I can quickly tell how Wal-Mart is going to do in the future by looking at their “IL ratio” in upper management.
Simply put, the “IL ratio” is how many Ivy League graduates there are in upper management compared to graduates of other colleges and universities. If say 5% of upper management are Ivy League, then the expectation should be that the corporation should expect a 5% decline in its profit margin and customer satisfaction each year. It is close to a proportional ratio.
This is the reason that many corporations refuse to hire Ivy League graduates, and why some refer to them as “corporate cancer”.
I don’t go to Wal-Mart as much any more because I have been getting our supplies from a place that’s kinda like a food co-op. I did go to Wal-Mart yesterday and didn’t notice anything different than any other time than I have been. This is a nicer Wal-Mart in a nicer area. I wasn’t looking for anything either though. I do miss the food samples in Sam’s, but understand a company has got to do what a company has got to do.
Never had a problem at the WalMart near me in southern NH. The cashiers are always cheerful, and the store is always stocked and clean. Even had a dept. mgr call me when an item I was looking for came in!
The service is much worse in department stores such as Macy’s.
I’ve seen no change in our local Wal-Mart. It appears adequately staffed, lines are about the same as they have been. The only place I have ever requested assistance is in Electronics and Auto Parts. They seem to be about the same.
My wife hasn’t noticed any appreciable changes either.
Your blowing smoke. The service in the local walmart has been the same. Go somewhere else to peddle your anti-Walmart propaganda.
I am generally satisfied with the SuperCenter nearest me. Sometimes I shop at 6 AM, when there are tons of people restocking (in groceries, at least) so you can ask where something is if you want.
When I go during the busy hours, there always seems to be a person standing opposite the checkouts, observing things. I don’t know who they are, but they seem friendly.
To me it seems at peak hours that if the cashier lines are busy, the self checkout is not too bad, and vice versa. I’m not sure it’s any better or worse than a year ago.
I don’t know what their security procedures are like, but I was not too happy at another SC during Christmas season when I had been through the grocery section and went into the Christmas department to look for a simple string of lights that they did not have, but had some guy follow me and stare and speak into a walkie-talkie. He was dressed differently and obviously thought I was a shoplifter, maybe because I had put a bottle of liquor in my basket and was wearing a heavy coat. I have not been back there.
I go in two or three times a year. I stock up on toiletries that cost 1/2 of what Walgreens charges item for item. As long as I don’t get run over by those roaming in the motorized carts I’m happy.
Looks like too many chiefs and not enough Indians. But seriously, it does seem that they are getting people checked out faster than they used to. I just hate that they have dropped so many of the items they used to stock. People have explained it away that evidently the items they dropped were poor sellers but the local store managers have debunked that theory. They say that the items dropped were very good sellers. They had to make room for wider aisles. But I have noticed one thing. Walmart is obsessed with the Green Movement and lowfat crap.
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.
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.
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.