I'm not sure that the scheduling system is as dramatic a negative as the liberal media is leading us to believe. After all, hospitals and airlines have been doing it for years. Schedule staff during periods when there is demand. Reduce staffing when there is a lack of demand.

The media made it sound as if the employees will be on-call "reserves" but if you read a little bit more closely about Kronos software it looks as though it will simply look at historical traffic patterns and then project demand based on that history. The company then creates shifts that match the employees with the demand.

Makes perfect sense. Reduce overhead when it is not required. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and see how this works out.

Scheduling your employees to meet your business demands is done in ALL retailers. Those who are the most flexible in their availablity will naturally get the most hours. Retail is NOT a Monday - Friday 9-5 job. Period. If you want those hours, get an office job. I finally did when I couldn't take the weekly schedule changes anymore.
When I was a retail manager for a big box store, we were slow in the mornings, busy for a couple of hours around lunch time, slow in the afternoons, busy in the early evenings and slow the last couple of the hours of the day. It did not make sense to hire and schedule full time cashiers to stand around all day during the slow times when I could use part time employees on shorter shifts to have additional (needed) coverage during the busy times.
Please stop picking on WalMart for taking care of its business needs. How many of us have shopped there late in the evening and had to stand in long lines because only two cashiers were scheduled after 9pm? Since more families have both parents working, the bulk of the grocery and other shopping is no longer done during traditional work hours. These retailers need the staffing flexibility to meet the needs of the overwhelming number of customers who shop in the evenings and on the weekends.

I think this is a great idea. I have had to stand in line in Wal Mart many times and seen people walk out because the lines are too long. I have wondered why they couldn't have more checkers when it was so busy. I think this will help solve the problem.

As a Wal-mart associate I can say, the scheduling needs for the customers is top prioity. The underlining problem is, currently employed associates (with several years) who based their own family needs around a set schedule, then expected to change suddenly does unwanted hardship on the families. In addition Wal-Mart's whole philosophy is family first. This was started by Sam himself. With the new scheduling system, schooling for associates to improve their quality of life is out the door. In order to get full time hours, you have to be available to work 24-7.

I have reading the same stuff about the effectiveness of the scheduling. Fix the real problem. What Wal-Mart is so perfect that "standing around" is acceptable. I'm sure there are assignments during the slower times of the day needing to be done. Try cleaning the restrooms or straightening the shelves. Even getting prices on the merchandise to assist the customers in a more useful way.

Doom? Do you know what that word means? Doom is when you are dying with cancer, or you have a death in the family, or you are an alcoholic or drug addict and you lose your job, home and family. I don't think you can apply that word to the country when one company has a declining same store sales figure for the month of December. Get a little real here if you want people to believe you.