Your Wal-Mart Shopping Experiences

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.

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.

We love their prices, that is what gets us there. But I have noticed that when the shelves are thin there is plenty of staff up front. When there are plenty stocking there are long lines. Being a former retail guy I often cruise around while my wife is shopping. I don’t know were all these managers are because I can never find them.

Their produce is another story, generally not very fresh and not well tended. We buy produce at a locally owned grocery store where I regularly see half a dozen (no kidding) employees working just produce on a Saturday. It is a large produce department with great super fresh selection and unbelievable service. They are even often competitive on price with WM. So we are regulars but for us it’s all about price, except when it comes to produce.

Captain, I’m curious..what are your thoughts now after reading the replies here?

Interesting thread by the way.

Well I work for Wal-Mart at a local store and I was curious to see if the problems I was seeing at my store was happening other places.

The answer is yes they are and it's sad in many ways. Top management has made some bad mistakes, they have put into place a system that does not allow us to staff our stores properly and most importantly we are not taking care of our customers.

The current reorganization looks to be a unmitigated disaster all in the name of squeezing costs to the detriment of everything else. That will only get you so far.
If we are not doing the real basics which is keeping our stores stocked, keeping them clean and taking care of our customers then I could foresee Wal-Mart going the way of other past retailing giants and I believe that could happen.

Well at this pint I think Wal-Mart hit it's peak a few years ago so they need to regroup and assess their future and priorities.

Captain, from reading all of the comments (and watching my local Walmart) I agree with you.

Have the very top-level heads at Walmart realized also what a mistake has been made? I can’t imagine they would continue in this course for very long with so many unhappy customers...or are they no longer concerned for the U.S. stores and just want to concentrate on continuing their fast expansion in China and Mexico?

Seems their priorities have moved to those countries maybe?

Thanks for your replies. I’m enjoying this thread.

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