Posted on 02/18/2015 10:09:06 AM PST by Citizen Zed
For Walmart, the dip in its customer satisfaction ratings could spell more trouble ahead. Retailers, after all, are at the whim of the consumer, who is typically looking for a mix of good prices, selection and customer service. If a retailer starts to fail on those fronts, it can end up in what ACSI director David VanAmburg calls "a deadly cycle." On top of that, Walmart's well-publicized struggles with calls from employees for higher pay and benefits may be taking a toll.
"They are not as dominant on the price side as they were, and the quality still isn't there," VanAmburg told CBS Moneywatch. "They haven't stepped up their game on that side, so we are seeing a lot of dissatisfaction by comparison."
Walmart, meanwhile, has been criticized by activists and employees for its low wages, which have prompted embarrassing episodes such as company stores holding food drives for their own workers. It doesn't look very good for the nation's biggest private employer when its workers have to rely on handouts and government aid to make ends meet.
Conversely, the top-rated speciality retail store, Costco, has benefited from a few trends, including its relatively high pay for retail workers and access to benefits, with Bloomberg BusinessWeek calling it the "happiest company in the world."
(Excerpt) Read more at wctv.tv ...
Or maybe it’s just the WM’s in the worst parts of their towns. My only problem with the people AT WM is there’s too many of them, especially given how much crap WM likes to put in the aisles. Makes navigation difficult. Good people, bad people, don’t care, they’re in the way.
This is the WalMart store in Ellsworth, Maine. The staff is friendly....never had a problem with any of them.
30 miles away is the Bangor area. An even larger WalMart is located there, plus Sam’s Club, Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Best Buy, K Mart, and many other chains, and soon a BJ’s.
Maine as a whole is 96% - 98% white.
There are Somali communities in Lewiston and Portland.
If I was shopping at a WalMart in an urban area of the country like many of the posters on this thread, my opinion would probably be different.
LOL, your store that you shop at is too popular and you don’t want so many people in the store.
It sounds serious.
Not all states. I know Missouri spreads their payments out.
The welfare money part of EBT that can be used almost anywhere, is the first 4 days of the month depending on your birth month. I don’t have this but that is what the website says.
The food stamp part, that can only be used on food, is based on last name and birth month. All but April and December has two days. Anytime from the 1st to the 22nd when people born in December get theirs filled.
Yeah I have to shop at Wal-Mart as we basically only have them, Dollar General, a local overpriced grocery store owned by a dirty old man (but a good meat department), a food service outlet (which takes EBT and I like shopping there) and a few other places that isn’t worth the time or effort to stop at.
If I get a chance I like shopping at Aldi and Kroger, but since I don’t drive I have to rely on my mom or a sister. Usually only get there when I have a doctor appointment but occasionally we do a just shopping trip.
I was just trying to be grateful.
I don’t believe in any permits or licenses for any part of the Bill Of Rights.
It’s interesting to see the conservative freepers and the liberal freepers also splitting on Walmart, our liberals seem to hate the store, and have all kinds of experiences and anecdotes that most of us don’t run into.Today we will fill a prescription, buy vitamins, electrical plug and HEET, pet food, groceries and go home.
One stop. Lowest price.
Least gas consumed, least winter driving.
The alternate business model to Bentonville is Beltway:
Extort taxes, produce nothing, punish invention, limit freedom.
Well it’s the beginning of the bad shopping experience that is WM. First the parking lot is crowded making it take longer to park, then the store is crowded AND there’s a bunch of crap in the aisles (WM’s fondness for aisle stacks is extra irritating) making it take longer to get to the stuff, then the checkouts are understaffed making it take longer to buy the stuff, and then you get it home and you find out why it was cheaper (lower quality and smaller portions). More time, more aggravation, less value. Just plain not a good place to shop.
First off, Star Traveler is just trying to be a nasty, attention grabbing prick. Ignore him
With that being said, I actually have 3 Walmarts within 7 miles of my house!
I've never really shopped at any of them until about 7 weeks ago when at 1:30 in the morning the power went out in my area. Because I have a sump pump in the basement with constant water coming into it, I didn't want to take a chance in it overflowing into the finished basement before the power came back on.
Fortunately Walmart is open 24/7....So I headed out to one of them to purchase a 750 Watt Power Converter which I was going to attach to my car battery then run an extension cord into the basement to run the sump pump. Well, not reading all the instructions, I burned out the power converter.
So, I packaged it up, took it to the closest Walmart only 3 miles away (why I didn't go there first, I don't know)and exchanged it hassle free for another one........
As a side note, in addition to the 3 Walmarts, I also have 1 Home Depot 3 miles East of me and another 3 miles West of me. There is also a Lowes only 1 mile away from me. Throw in one Target, one Sams Club and one Costco all within 3 miles from me.............
What pays for my membership is buying gas - I save at least $0.20 / gallon on the low end for regular, and even more on premium; it's about a block away from work, and the gas station opens early, so I tank up during the week, and watch everyone else wait in line starting Friday afternoon all the way through Sunday afternoon. Between my Costco cash refund and my Costco AmEx annual rewards check, my membership fee is covered and I normally have enough for another shopping trip. This year it paid for the new netbook.
If the store is too popular, you should do the other shoppers a favor and quit going there.
There once was a time when "thread hijacking" would get you slapped with a time out....Time Traveler is just looking for attention and argument at this point in the game........
No, I told you that I worked at a bank and witnessed the card accounts being topped off with money.
The demographics makes the situation different for each locale.
I didn’t realise the Maine demographics where as such.
Why?
About a month ago my vacuum motor died so I went online at Walmart and ordered one for pick up. Got the email saying it was in and headed over to pick it up. The whole returns/pickup area was roped off and shut down. Walmart worker guy was standing up there telling everybody that came in that the computers were down, had been down for a week and probably not be fixed for 4-5 more days.
Me: are you kidding?
Him: nope not sure when they’ll be up.
Me: what am I supposed to do? I’d like to cancel my order
Him: well the signs been up for a wk.
Me: and wth does that have to do with m?
Him: signs been up for a wk
I walking away in disgust shaking my head. I came home and called Walmart customer service and she tells me they can’t cancel my order. What?!?! Apparently once it gets to the store it leaves the national system and I had to sit and wait for at least 20 minutes while she called the store and got a manager on the line to cancel my order. I of course complained to the manager about his oh so helpful employee who just kept talking about the sign. Then I complained to the customer service gal for the awkwardness of their system and said I will NEVER order online from Walmart again.
My simple vacuum purchase wound up a huge pain the rear.
Just plain not a good place to shop.
****************
One shoe doesn’t fill all. To me Walmart is a no frills store and thus I don’t
expect the same that is in a higher end store. That said I my experience with their
employees has been satisfactory.
At the one nearest me it’s the first Saturday of the month that must be avoided. Hillbilly convention is the only way to describe it. A sight to behold.
I order online from them and like it.
Your story sounds freakishly unusual.
Where is your Wal-Mart? I want to see this lawless place, and its disease-ridden inhabitants. And park in its parking lot.
I have to shop at Walmart and I have been to many, even had to sleep in their parking lots a couple of times while traveling. I have never had a problem with the employees and have never seen anyone that would not be worthy of a front row pew or washing their feet.
I do always wash my hands when I get home but that is because of using the carts. I rarely get sick. I also know that tuesday night is the slowest in retail so that is when I shop. I have had a panic attack in a crowd so I don’t go on Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
I lived in a military town and lots of boots shop there so if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me. Never saw a general there but I wouldn’t know one if I saw one.
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